Connecting Alaska to the World And the World to Alaska
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Families Enroll in Classrooms by Default

With the pandemic threatening in-person schooling, the Fairbanks North Star Borough School District Board of Education has been meeting weekly, and sometimes twice a week, to oversee the options offered to families. The met Monday evening and are meeting again tonight (Wednesday.)

At last count there are 13,281 public school students in the borough and about 11,000 are presumed to return to the classroom, with others staying home learning remotely or attending a homeschool program. The district asked families to enroll students by last Friday, however, which families are doing what is still in flux.

The district is trying to give kids a rich education but be COVID-safe at the same time, and has been asking families to choose among three options to return to school.

Melanie Hadaway, the district’s Executive Director of Teaching and Learning, says families were asked a question:

“Do you want your student to come back to school, if school is in session, or are you really wanting to keep your student home?”

The answers shape the schooling options. The default is called “blended remote and in-person” learning. Kids will start August 20th online or with mailed materials at home, until the COVID-19 case numbers in the community go down. Then kids will return to school buildings – elementary kids five days a week, and secondary kids every other day. Superintendent Karen Gaborik says it is the option most families took if they didn’t enroll in one of the other two options.

“11,601, again by default; they didn’t have to choose it, who want to continue with in-person blended as the numbers we have as of Friday.”

The second option is E-learning. Families commit to online instruction for a quarter or semester. That way, a district teacher can schedule class sessions, make assignments, and do the grading. This is like old-fashioned correspondence school, and the district has been doing it for years. But Hadaway says more families chose it this year.

“We were at about 1,277 students who had chosen e-learning district-wide.”

FNSBSD Learning options for families to choose.

Students in the E-learning option might switch back to the classroom at quarter or semester break.

The third option is the district’s BEST homeschool. BEST stands for “Building Educational Success Together;” these students withdraw from their assigned school and instead enroll with the district, but stay at home with parent-supported instruction.

Luke Meinert, Assistant Superintendent for Secondary Instruction says the number of kids signing up for BEST has doubled.

“622 on Friday, was the number we had for BEST.”

That’s about 360 more kids. BEST students would not go back and forth to classes if buildings should reopen. Except for increasing numbers, the BEST program has not been changed by the pandemic.

District Chief Operating Officer Andreu DeGraw says he knows in spite of last Friday’s deadline, some families are still deciding.

“These numbers are constantly changing. Our enrollment projection for this year was 13,281. But the numbers, we are down about 700 students, roughly. The vast majority of that is at the elementary level.”

DeGraw says some of that 700-student drop is parents of kindergartners who have not signed up for school at all. DeGraw says about 350 have withdrawn from public school in FNSBSD, and are enrolling instead in private schools or homeschools.