February 7, 2012 at 6:06 a.m.
Student open enrollment begins
Student open enrollment begins
When Gov. Walker signed the state budget last summer, he eliminated the cap limiting enrollment in the state's online virtual and online charter schools, making it easier for interested students to enroll.
Now, students and families looking for alternative schooling options no longer have to be placed on a waiting list and can enroll within the new three month period, from February to the end of April.
WCA, part of the Appleton Area School District, is a virtual learning environment for grades kindergarten through eighth grade, with high school newly added this year, and serves the entire state of Wisconsin.
Virtual classrooms offer students more flexibility in how their school day is run and allows them to move at their own pace.
Dean of students for WCA, Jeff LeMahieu, said the main goal is to provide another option for students and parents who are looking to try something different.
"A lot of parents and students like the flexibility of a daily schedule because there's no school bell going to ring so they can take their time," he said. "A student may have five classes and one student might take an hour and a half to do one class while another may take 45 minutes, it's up to them how much time they need."
He said the variety of students is similar to regular public school, so there is no one type of student who would benefit from virtual learning.
"We have a really big mix of students, just like traditional school, and they all have different reasons for wanting to learn through a virtual classroom," he said. "Any student can enroll, as long as both school districts agree, which they normally do, students and their families are able to look into an alternative learning environment."
The president of the Wisconsin Coalition of Virtual School Families, Jane Kummer-Meyer is from the Rhinelander area and the mother of five. She originally home schooled her kids when about nine years ago she received a postcard in the mail for WCA.
Initially, she said she didn't think WCA would work for her family but nine years later she hasn't looked back.
"We decided to give it a try and to be honest I didn't think it was going to work for a second but it is the best thing we could have done," she said. "The whole time I knew I could go back to homeschooling if I wanted but there is so much work involved with homeschool that this just made life so much easier."
Kummer-Meyer put four of her five kids into WCA and has experienced every grade, kindergarten through high school, and said it has worked for them at every level.
"It has worked for each of my kids and now that they offer high school, my son is continuing through WCA even though we let him choose if he wanted to go to the traditional high school," she said.
Kummer-Meyer holds parent-to-parent meetings in Rhinelander for other families looking into or currently enrolled in WCA and said one of the more common concerns is the amount of time a student spends on the computer and how much socializing there is since the school is primarily virtual.
"It depends on the grade, because my younger kids spend more time working out of work books but my high schooler spends more time on his laptop," she said. "The interactions between the students, the teachers and the parents is fantastic because they host live classes and hold about four non-mandatory field trips a month so the students and teachers can interact in person."
Kummer-Meyer said WCA does take a higher degree of parental involvement, both to help the student and to work more closely with the teachers.
"It's an investment because with my third grader, for instance, there's more work for me helping them stay on task but my son in high school works more independently," she said. "But I can go online and check their assignments and their grades and I will get phone calls from their teachers regularly to keep up with their progress."
She said the main benefits she has found are that her kids get more one-on-one time with the teachers and take more responsibility in their education than they would in a brick and mortar setting.
"The teachers are phenomenal and are so excited to help the kids succeed and the kids can work at their own pace and really take ownership in their work and their learning," she said. "My oldest son can work while going to school and people say all the time how responsible he is and dependable and it just proves to me that it really has worked for us."
However, she said the online school setting is not for everyone and the decision should be weighted carefully.
"This can be used for kids who have an illness, who are not being challenged, who are having problems, maybe they need more advanced courses in younger level, but it's not for everyone and it takes a lot of work from the parents and the students," she said. "Education has to fit a student's specific needs and this program might be what people need and if it doesn't work they're not obligated to stay."
Because WCA is a public school, all the materials and text books are provided. They will even provide a desktop computer if a student needs one.
LeMahieu said this year, along with adding a high school option, the open enrollment period has been extended to three months, starting Feb. 6 and going until the end of April. WCA hosts a number of information sessions so parents and students can better explore their options and to be more informed before committing to the virtual classroom.
"We want people to know about it during the open enrollment period and before because people don't often think about next year until summer so this is a way to get them thinking about it sooner," he said. "These info sessions are good because virtual schools are not the best fit for everyone so we basically run the parents through a typical day and that way they can make an informed decision and know what they're getting into."
Monica Baltich may be reached at [email protected].
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