Now that a number of Great Bend USD 428 students are attending their classes online, a committee is looking into creating a virtual school for grades 6-12 that would continue past the COVID-19 pandemic.

Assistant Superintendent John Popp and Director of Teaching and Learning Tricia Reiser discussed the idea at last Monday’s school board meeting.

“We sincerely believe that our kids are best off at school, and with the announcement of vaccines coming there’s a light at the end of the tunnel,” Popp said. “We want kids on-site; I will say that.”

However, Reiser said a small virtual program limited exclusively to USD 428 students could be beneficial for some families. There will continue to be some families who feel the safest option is remote learning. 

“We have some kids that have behavior problems where they’re not able to be on site and the virtual option for them would be really beneficial,” Reiser added.

“I’ve reached out to 10 school districts in the state who offer a virtual program and we received some really good guidance,” she said. “The beauty about creating a virtual program is that we can make it look exactly like we want it to look – take the best of all the programs and put something together that’s really helpful.”

If the district wants to pursue a virtual program next year, it needs to have its application submitted to the Kansas State Department of Education by the second week in February.

“That’s why we brought it to you today, so you can hear our first thoughts on it,” Reiser told board members. “We’ll bring a more formalized presentation to you next month ... but I really think this is a good idea for USD 428 — a small virtual school, not opening it up to other districts — just for our own kids.”

The district already has the staff to do that, she added, mentioning the work being done at the high school with GB Remote students.

A virtual school would be more demanding than the remote classes offered this year, the administrators said. With GB Remote, families do sign assurances that they are committed to spending a certain number of hours per week “in school.” But with a virtual school, there is much more accountability, and families make a more formal commitment, Popp said.

“We recognize GB Remote will not be needed any more (after the pandemic) but some families will find remote learning really does work better for them,” Popp said. It would need to be a small group “that we’d have stringent expectations for. To me, this is GB Remote the way it should be.”

“A virtual program has a lot more teeth to it, if you will,” Reiser said.

The virtual schools that were most appealing to Great Bend administrators were located in Garden City, Valley Center, Goddard, and Newton. They also looked at Wellington, Manhattan and Abilene. All of the virtual schools were created before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Reiser said there were concerns about how the district would handle school counseling as well as hands-on courses such as Career & Technical Education (CTE). She found these issues are “very manageable” and it’s something the other schools have addressed. For example, one district has in-person counseling available once a week. Following the lead of other districts, USD 428 won’t have to reinvent the wheel, she said.

“Those are just initial concerns of our committee,” she said, adding research will continue after Christmas.

Keep it small

Asked how many students the district would reach with a virtual school, Reiser said she’d like to keep the enrollment low. There are virtual schools that accept students from anywhere, including other states. Other districts have limited enrollment to 40 or 50 students. Although the district would want to be flexible if a family needs to change course, it wouldn’t work to have students flip-flopping between virtual and in-person school, she added. In some districts, if a student switches to the virtual school after the start of the semester, nothing they’ve done on-site transfers — they start over.

“Virtual learning is not for the faint of heart,” Reiser said. “It is a lot of work.” But that is what is needed for an effective virtual program, she said. And for some families, it’s the best choice.