Some love it. Others want to leave it. How is Fayette’s Virtual Learning Academy working?

Misti Meece and her son on Thursday joined hundreds at a drive-through open house for Fayette County School’s Virtual Learning Academy, an online program separate from the at-home learning most Lexington families are engaged in and one that has had its share of criticism.

Although Meece’s ninth grader Lee Blythe plans to return to Bryan Station High School in January because he misses his friends, he said the Academy has been a good fit -- “I like learning online.’’

It has also been good for Meece’s family because she said her father was at high risk for COVID-19.

Parents who talked to the Herald-Leader recently about the Virtual Learning Academy, which has 1,063 students and 28 teachers, offered mixed reactions. The Virtual Learning Academy, newly opened during the pandemic, is designed for families who –- for reasons related to their child’s health or the health of others in their household –- do not want to return to in-person instruction in 2020-2021.

Tonya Tibbits said she knew that she made a semester long commitment to Fayette County’s Virtual Learning Academy, also called VLA, but she wants to send the four grandchildren that she is raising back to their assigned school.

“I just didn’t know what an impact it ( the virtual academy) would be on my four kids,” said Tibbits. They are so far behind on everything, grades are slipping, (they are) behind in band.”

Tibbits wants them to return to Fayette’s at home learning non-traditional instruction program “because if I have to wait till end of the semester I feel they will fail and honor roll students shouldn’t fail!”

Parent Shannon Perkins said she didn’t like VLA.

“Communication has been slim to none,” she said. “My 8th grader spends about an hour a day and is done. My high school student takes a little bit longer, but it’s still nowhere near the type of instruction he should be receiving.”

VLA students receive daily instruction and interact with teachers on a set schedule. Daily attendance in online classes is required, as is completion of daily assignments.

The Virtual Learning Academy is not the Non-Traditional Instruction: Differentiated Distance Learning, which all schools offer.

The main difference is that instruction in NTI/2DL is delivered by teachers on a short-term basis with the hope that students and teachers will be able to return to the classroom. Fayette began a two hour limited return with 40 schools welcoming students back to campus for targeted services this week, but a full in-person return isn’t expected until after winter break.

Families were asked to make a semester-long commitment to the Virtual Learning Academy, which uses an online platform called the Florida Virtual School costing the district about $800,000 and is staffed by local Fayette County teachers. Teachers might be those who cannot return to in-person learning for health reasons,Kentucky-certified part-time teachers hired specifically for the Virtual Learning Academy, or teachers who work in other Fayette schools full-time but agree to take on the additional responsibility to teach a course for students in the Fayette VLA.

Tibbits said she asked VLA officials if her children could return to their assigned school but VLA officials said no, even though the assigned school officials were willing.

VLA staff told her in an email that students could not go back to their assigned school until January because they had made a semester-long commitment.

“Hang in there,” the email said, “It will be here before you know it.”

Soraya Matthews, the executive director of the Virtual Learning Academy, said Academy officials are making such decisions about letting children return to their assigned school before January on a case-by-case basis. District officials on Thursday offered to reach out to any family who told the Herald-Leader they were having problems with the program.

Tibbits said the teachers are “doing the best they can in these scary times. “I just want my four grandkids to be back in the regular NTI and possibly even one day of in-person learning.”

Parent Shannon Patterson said after a slow start to get the Virtual Learning Academy up and running, it has been good for her 16-year-old daughter Melody, a high school junior, and the family is “extremely satisfied.”

“A lot of parents kind of feel lost in it, but I think for us I think it’s probably been better than the traditional classroom setting just because of the flexibility,” Patterson said.

She thinks VLA is putting students first.

“My daughter hasn’t missed a beat and quite honestly the instruction that she is getting and the one on one attention that she is getting from it is much more than what she got in the classroom,” said Patterson.

She said her daughter went from being a struggling student in the classroom often in the mix of 30 kids to an A and B student with VLA. The teen has learned time management.

Patterson said the VLA teachers respond quickly to email questions.

“If we would be allowed to I would love actually to finish out her high school career in it,” said Patterson.

Each child who attended the open house Thursday in the parking lot of the district’s warehouse on Russell Cave Road received a bag of gifts. Meece said her son got a blue-tooth speaker, apples, candy, a t-shirt and a mask. Top 40 music set a party atmosphere. Superintendent Manny Caulk and other district staff, many dressed in costumes, greeted the vehicles.

Matthews said that some families are very satisfied and some families haven’t had the positive experience they expected and its not the perfect environment for every student.

Connie Johns Broomhall offered a mixed response about how VLA had worked for her daughter.

“She’s in 10th grade and is a good student. There is not much in instruction, mostly self paced. Biggest issue we have is getting the scheduled classes. At the start, she had no classes in VLA. A week or so delay till she had any classes, and they were just core classes. Weeks went by before she got her full schedule.”

Broomhall said weeks passed between communications from the VLA staff.

“An email explaining the delays would have been nice and easy to do,” she said.

“All that said, we are grateful to have this option as my husband and I are older and in high risk groups. So thankful that our daughter is tech savvy and self disciplined,” said Broomhall.

A decision has not been made on whether VLA will be open in 2021-2022, but Matthews said she hopes so because the results have shown that education can be successful in a virtual environment. District spokeswoman Lisa Deffendall said district officials learned about the Florida Virtual Academy through a similar program in Barren County Schools.

Matthews said she thinks the VLA staff have done a good job with communication, “I can’t say it’s great, because of course there are still some people who maybe aren’t getting what they need.”

She said the staff is “tweaking” what they are doing when they are hearing from families.

“This is all new,” Matthews said. “We’re ever evolving. We’re focused on continuous improvement.”

This story was originally published October 23, 2020 at 3:36 PM.