NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Parents in the Williamson County School District will have two options when sending their kids back to school this fall: online and in-person.
The district is offering the options with different teachers for both and is calling for parents to fill out an online form by midnight Wednesday.
The form is used to help parents learn what a student's online courses will be.
“We’re asking for that information now so we can make those determinations and we’re making those decisions based on what their class schedules are in the buildings and what their needs are in the school,” said Allison Fisher, director of the school system's online program.
Despite the additional option, one parent questioned why the online and in-person instruction were split.
Steve Mydelski has a daughter who is about to start her freshman year of high school. She was supposed to attend Franklin High School, Mydelski says, but they've decided to enroll in online courses.
“We’re being offered a situation where she’s going to do online resources, classes but it has nothing to do with Franklin High School,” said Mydelski.
According to the district, both online and in-person classes will have Williamson County School teachers leading the courses. Mydelski wonders why the in-person classes couldn't be streamed digitally to people who want to learn online.
“Why are [they] not real-time live streaming teachers in classrooms to children to chose to stay online," he said. "Why is that impossible?”
Mydelski also worries if the pandemic ends, his daughter may return to class having learned differently than her classmates.
Fisher said the school system has plans for all grade levels to learn online, but the format will be different for different grades.
“It does depend on the age level of the student. We will have more synchronous and scheduled times available with live sessions the younger the student is. So, it’s very practical that a younger student would log in first thing, 8:45 just like when school starts. They would do a live Zoom session with their teacher during that time. Their school day will look much more structured like it does at the elementary school and when you get to middle and high school, we’ll still have some more flexibility with teachers but it may have some more flexibility like a traditional online school session,” said Fisher.
