County schools release virtual learning plans

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By Allison Joy
IRON COUNTY — As part of an unprecedented back-to-school season, local parents will need to decide whether to send their students back to in-person classes or opt for an at-home virtual learning program. There are no hybrid options, and commitments will need to be made for the full term. 
Middle and high school students at West Iron who attend school virtually will do so through Michigan Virtual, a 501(c)3 nonprofit based out of Lansing. Courses will be taught by teachers throughout the state, and a West Iron teacher will oversee student progress and provide weekly check-ins to ensure students are keeping up with coursework. 
For more than 10 years, West Iron students have had the option to take online classes through Michigan Virtual High School. Principal Mike Berutti estimates that, prior to COVID-19, about 100 high school students per semester enrolled in Michigan Virtual classes for credit recovery or to address scheduling conflicts, or for electives not offered in-person - like entrepreneurship or business ethics.
“Don’t procrastinate, because it will catch up to you,” Berutti advised virtual-learning students. “Kids can work on classes 24/7 and will have communication with [West Iron] teachers … once or twice a week to answer questions and make sure they’re staying on pace. If not, we’ll be reaching out to parents.”
At a meeting with parents on Aug. 12, Berutti encouraged them to sign students up for Michigan Virtual early to ensure they’d be able to register for classes by the start of the term. 
School officials are working to procure enough devices for all middle and high school students who need them, though middle schoolers may not have theirs by the start of the term.
That delay is mainly caused because the devices have been kept offshore due a sanction by the U.S. Department of Commerce on some Chinese companies over human rights abuses of their Muslim minority workers.
All third, fourth and fifth graders at Stambaugh Elementary will have their own device. Principal Michelle Thomson said that the school has additional devices on reserve, and that if school went completely online, “We’d be able to give anyone who needed one a device.”
As with Michigan Virtual, there will be no live-feed learning; students can access lesson modules from their device at any time of day. 
At Stambaugh Elementary, virtual classes will still be taught by the building’s teachers. Through the use of Google Classrooms and Smartboards, video modules and check-ins with teachers, virtual learners will be doing the same coursework under the same instruction as their in-person peers. 
“We have a strong math and reading program and it was important to me that kids still have access to that at home,” Thomson said. 
Students who attend class virtually through Forest Park will be taught by Forest Park teachers. Those teachers will offer a live feed of classes to students, who will be expected to attend synchronously with their in-person peers unless prior arrangements are made. Classes will be recorded, and video made available if necessary. 
Devices will be available for rent to any student in need. Families that lack internet and don’t want to send students to in-person classes will be provided flash drives of recorded lessons, as well as any supplemental materials and homework assignments. These will be delivered on a weekly basis, and the previous week’s assignments turned in at the following week’s delivery. 
Forest Park Principal Jackie Giuliani stressed the distinction between virtual learning - where teachers’ coursework is provided in a home setting, and homeschooling - where the responsibility of course development and instruction falls upon parents. 
“I don’t want parents to feel that virtual learning is choosing to homeschool,” Giuliani said. “[Students] are still being taught by Forest Park teachers. Parents ... are just doing virtual learning as they would if they were helping at home with homework.”
Virtual learners at all schools are still eligible to participate in sports and other extracurriculars.