By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
A program that was opened during the height of the coronavirus pandemic is being closed in the St. Joseph School District.
Assistant Superintendent of Academic Services Ashly McGinnis says the virtual academy was opened to provide more quality education than the paper packets schools provided when schools closed during the pandemic.
McGinnis says while the virtual academy did provide a quality learning experience, now the districts needs have changed.
"We have a responsibility to assess staffing at all of our buildings," McGinnis tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post. "Currently we have approximately 18 to 20 elementary teacher openings, and that's not including the three elementary VA positions."
McGinnis says staffing was what largely played into the decision to close the virtual academy. For students that prefer virtual learning, it can still be accessed through the Department of elementary and secondary education.
McGinnis says one thing the district learned with the academy is how the virtual format doesn't work for every student
"Our numbers have decreased over the last three years," Mcginnis says. "So, in the height of fall of 2020 we had several students go virtual, but it just wasn't effective for a large chunk of kids."
But on the other hand, Mcginnis says there are other students it works great for.
"Who have the parent support at home, the motivation and drive to be a little bit more of an independent learner and learn through those means," McGinnis explains
McGinnis says the district’s focus on filling vacant teacher positions played a large part in choosing to close the virtual academy.
Ashly McGinnis says even though the academy is closing, if something were to happen that buildings had to close again, they do have the materials to reopen it
"As curriculum changes, we may have to make tweaks to those, but all of that work is still saved on our end, "McGinnis says. "So that if we were ever put into a situation where we were closed, we could utilize those resources."