A Preliminary Response From Superintendent Baseman Regarding Virtual School Next Fall And Plans To Help Failing Students

I did want to give a bit of an update on a post from last week.

As you may recall, I had been communicating with Appleton Area School District Superintendent Judy Baseman. There were a couple questions I had….

(1) In light of the fact that maintaining a fully virtual option is not a feasible model beyond this school year at current staffing levels, does that mean that Superintendent Baseman will be pushing to remove the virtual option next year? Or will she be pushing to increase staffing so that AASD can continue offering a virtual option?

(2) One of the guiding principles that AASD has striven to remain consistent with during the last year is “Equity: To meet the needs of all students”. How does 27% of high schoolers failing at least one class fit in with the guiding principle of meeting the needs of all students?

She did get back to me shortly after that post with some answers.

In regard to the first question she stated,

This decision was shared in last week’s AASD family message:

21-22 School Year Fully Virtual Options: We will not be offering an Elementary Virtual School (EVS) option for Kindergarten through 6th grade for the 2021-22 school year. If you are interested in full-time, at home virtual learning for the 2021-22 school year, consider enrolling your child in one of our virtual charter schools. Wisconsin Connections Academy (WCA) educates students in grades 4K-12. Appleton eSchool provides part-time and full-time options for students in grades 9 – 12. Both of these charter school options for our families will differ from the full-time virtual learning experiences they have had this school year. We encourage any interested families to learn more about WCA or eSchool.

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Superintendent Baseman did also offer a partial response to my second question, but I’m still waiting for some answers to follow up questions regarding details.

Here is her answer as it currently stands:

Meeting the needs of all students is our ultimate goal as educators, whether in a pandemic or in a ‘normal’ school year. Clearly, this year has been especially difficult due to the impact of the pandemic and the need to ensure safety. 27% of high school students failing at least one class is not consistent with that goal. We also know that many of our students will have social/emotional challenges that are not easy to quantify.

We have a lot of work ahead to meet the needs of our students. We are providing extra support for students this semester including Graduation Coaches. Graduation Coaches will work directly with our high school seniors so that they can successfully complete all graduation requirements by the end of the current school year. We are providing staff with additional student support time on a daily basis, including large blocks of time on Wednesdays, so that they can work directly with students to help each student demonstrate learning of essential course outcomes and improve their grade before the end of the semester. Additionally, this summer we will be focusing our efforts on in-person instruction and have provided three options for students to complete their work or recover their credits. We remain committed to meeting the needs of all students and will continue to work hard this semester, throughout the summer, and in the months and years to come to honor that commitment.”

I am still waiting to hear back regarding, amongst other things, how many Graduation Coaches there are, how many students have been offered Graduation Coach services, and how many students have opted to utilize those services. I will let you know when I learn more.