By Andrew Edwards
Staff Writer
The Elmore and Autauga County Public School Systems are going to look a lot different for the 2021-22 school year.
Elmore County public schools will have five e-learning days scheduled for the next academic school year, a decision that Superintendent Richard Dennis believes will benefit the students.
“Essentially, those e-learning days will act as a teacher in-service day. Students will be at home and will have the option to catch up on classwork online,” Dennis said.
Moreover, Dennis said that barring unseen circumstances, normalcy will mostly return to the Elmore County Public School System. Students will return to the traditional face-to-face method, and the blended attendance design will not continue.
However, there will still be an option for families who don’t feel comfortable sending their child to a physical school. Those wanting to attend school online will have the ability to apply to Elmore County’s ‘E.D.G.E.’ virtual school, which encompasses K-12. Students who leave their respective school to do this will no longer be considered a member of that school, but rather an enrollee of ‘E.D.G.E’. The deadline to apply is April 16th, and you can do so at https://www.elmoreco.com
Dennis also explained that masks will not be mandatory for the fall semester, but that the students may wear them if they want to.
“Blended attendance was difficult because we found ourselves dealing with a lack of student engagement at times. If the child was self-motivated and had a strong support system, then we didn’t really see many problems. However, if that wasn’t the case, then you were probably dealing with a failing student,” Dennis said.
As for the Autauga County Public School System, Superintendent Timothy Tidmore echoed several of Dennis’s sentiments.
“We’re going to try be as normal as possible. We’ve done well with COVID numbers this year, and have only had a handful of flu cases as well,” Tidmore said.
Tidmore explained the Autauga County School System will continue the mask mandate through the rest of this school year, with the exception of their last week in May. Once summer school starts, masks will no longer be required but rather encouraged to wear.
The superintendent said that the school system is still “continuing to define” what virtual schooling will look like. However, they do know that they will be using the ‘Edgenuity’ online platform, and like Elmore County, there will be no blended attendance next year. The Autauga County School System will resume traditional face-to-face teaching, and those wanting to do virtual learning will have to do so strictly through their online platform. The only difference is that students in Autauga County will still be considered a part of the school that they attended physically.
Certified teachers will be paid to teach the online classes through Edgenuity.
“Our teachers did a fantastic job this past year dealing with blended attendance, and we felt like it would be too much for them to have to continue that through next year as well,” Tidmore said.
The Autauga County School system also will have four scheduled e-learning days next year, which will act as weather days and make up times for students.
