More students in virtual learning are failing, Blue Mountain reports

Emily Graham, Republican & Herald, Pottsville, Pa.
·4 min read

Feb. 20—ORWIGSBURG — Virtual learning put in place because of the pandemic has had a negative effect on many Blue Mountain students' education.

The school board received first semester reports from each school and discussed some problems at Thursday's committee of the whole meeting. Administrators from each school delivered an overview of the first semester of the 2020-21 school year, giving special notice to problems with virtual instruction.

At the middle school, Principal James McGonigle said attendance and grades are down across the board. Of the 573 total middle school students, 70 students are failing two or more classes. Two failing classes is enough to be retained at the end of the year.

Broken down further, 31% of special education students, 36% of asynchronous virtual academy (VLN) students, 12% of synchronous virtual students and 10% of in-person students are failing two or more classes.

In Blue Mountain, students have a choice of attending classes in person five days a week, taking part in their classes online while the classes are conducted (synchronous) or signing up with Virtual Learning Network, an online education program (asynchronous).

McGonigle said these numbers are significantly higher than past years. The school has made phone calls, sent letters and emails, and conducted Zoom meetings with parents for all of these students.

"We are making the effort," McGonigle said. "A lot of times, parents are working and kids are at home and they're not doing what they should be doing."

Timothy Gombar, middle school assistant principal, said low attendance for virtual students has been a contributing factor to these failings. After some conversations with parents whose children had been fully virtual, the parents have decided to return their children to in-person learning, he said.

"I hope more try to do in-person, but obviously we can't force them to do that," Gombar said.

For the high school, 212 of the 862 students, 25%, are failing one or more class, with 44% of special education students, 58% of virtual academy students, 20% of synchronous virtual students and 16% of in-person students.

"We are trying to reel them back into the building, because if you look at the numbers, that's where they're successful more than anywhere else," Assistant Principal Kathy Reinert said.

Principal Kevin Berger said that, in one case, a student has chosen to work instead of complete virtual work.

"We found out that we have one student in VLN that hasn't logged in since November," Berger said. "They're working two jobs, and I believe they're strongly supporting their family under these difficult times."

The school has reached out to the student's family, but Gombar said it has been challenging to get the student to come back to school.

Berger said the high school has started to take attendance each period for synchronous virtual students, as well as checking attendance more frequently for asynchronous VLN students.

Superintendent David Helsel, Ed.D., said one plan to address these problems is to improve the virtual academy operations. The district met with representatives of VLN, the asynchronous virtual academy option for students, to discuss problems with the system.

"There are grading issues, delays in grading and a number of functional things that we're not happy about," Helsel said. "We ended up having a good meeting."

Helsel said VLN hired additional staff and agreed to improve communication with parents, faculty and administrators so that students will be aware sooner if they are failing a class.

For Elementary West and Cressona, Principal Kristin Frederick said very few students are at risk of failing the school year.

Mark Cesari, Elementary East principal, said 30 students are in jeopardy of failing, 10 of whom are virtual.

"Our biggest hurdles have been the completion of work, especially with the online students," Cesari said. "The other issue would be attendance."

However, Cesari said the elementary school's virtual education has been working well overall, and the school has been able to work well with students and parents.

Helsel said everyone in the district has been working hard to handle these challenges.

"It's been a team effort, a lot of hours, a lot of stress," Helsel said. "It's been a very challenging year, but everyone is working hard and doing their very best."

In other business, the board approved Fidevia Construction Management & Consulting, Lititz, to oversee the Elementary West construction project.

Helsel said there were no other updates on the construction project, as the pre-construction meeting scheduled for Thursday was delayed due to the weather.