Remote learning will continue for Richmond students in the fall.
With a tight deadline to sign up – May 14 – students from kindergarten to Grade 9 can opt to learn from home next school year in the school district’s “distributed learning” program, but they will have to withdraw from their home school.
The Richmond Board of Education voted unanimously Wednesday evening to continue remote learning in the 2021/22 school year, given the uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The revamped remote learning program will require parental supervision and Internet access.
District superintendent Scott Robinson explained to the board that remote learners only receive 80 per cent of funding, but, because many other school districts in the Lower Mainland plan to offer similar programs, the Richmond School District could lose students if it didn’t offer this program.
The transitional learning program this year cost the school district about $4.5 million - $3.3 million for the elementary program and $1.2 million for the secondary program. The school district received about $9 million in federal grants to help schools during the pandemic.
However, teachers were expected this year to teach both in-person students and their remote students.
The program as envisioned for next year wouldn’t have classroom teachers responsible for remote students, rather those learning at home would be in different learning groups.
In a report to the board, Robinson explained the program as it was done this year wouldn’t be sustainable over the next school year.
“Teachers communicated from the onset that this dual role was extremely challenging and in some cases, impacted the teaching and learning experience in both programs despite teachers’ best efforts,” he wrote in his report.
An exception would be made for students with severely compromised immune systems – they would remain connected to their home school, which would be responsible for their educational program.
Students in Grades 8 and 9 who want to learn remotely will be registered with Richmond Virtual School.
Currently, there are about 1,650 students in the school district’s transitional learning program – originally, there were about 4,000, but many have returned to classrooms.
An information session about distributed learning will be held on May 5.
