The Community Schools of Frankfort issued a reminder that applications for the Virtual Academy have opened
for the 2024-2025 school year.
Community members seeking virtual education for their students may apply for the academy at bit.ly/FVAapp. The Frankfort Virtual Academy operates with rolling admissions, and applications are reviewed regularly as families are notified via email regarding acceptance to the program.
The application solely acts as an application of interest and does not guarantee admittance into the academy. The application will be screened by a committee and applicants will be notified on or before July 19, 2024 regarding acceptance or placement on a wait list.
For more information, contact 765-654-8545 ext. 2204.
The implementation of the virtual academy was approved by the School Board in October 2023 as administrators noted that 21 students had left the school system during the fall semester due to the need for a virtual option for education. Superintendent Dr. Matt Rhoda explained the feelings behind the decision for the board and administration.
“First, there was a need,” Rhoda said. “We’re losing these kids. What do we do? We want to keep them. We want to have options. Our hands are tied right now. What do we do? And then, a goup of educators got together and put together our first iteration of this.”
Upon its approval, the virtual academy is slated to provide multiple opportunities for students, including a 100% virtual option and hybrid option for students. The school will focus on the hybrid version for most students to ensure that the students remain engaged with the faculty and their fellow students, but the team that developed the academy also recognized that some students may need to attend a completely virtual school due to extenuating circumstances, which led to the development of the 100% virtual option as well.
“We kept talking through scenarios from do we want kids to come in-person a little bit, but we kept coming back to if we don’t offer 100% virtual, we’re going to lose them anyway,” Rhoda said. “We wanted to be able to provide both 100% virtual as well as a hybrid, always trying to even get the 100% kids to get connected back because we feel like we all need to be connected.”
The first semester of the academy was planned to be funded through Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund dollars, known as ESSER funds, to test the success of the program, and the following semesters are intending to utilize EdOptions and Edmentum for the program, which is estimated to cost around $2,400 for a full semester for the corporation.
“This could change and get better each time,” Rhoda said. “It’s more than a credit recovery system. This is a direct instruction and support from staff.”
The program will focus heavily on the possibility for hybrid classes for students to maintain social interactions, have easy access to local instructors for questions and ensure that students are able to maintain a deep understanding of certain subjects, such as AP Calculus, art classes and more.
“For any program, we want to be able to give our kids options that are going to help them be successful when they leave us,” Rhoda said. “Here is another option that Community Schools of Frankfort, Frankfort High School’s able to offer to our high school kids to help them be successful getting through high school and on track for either enlistment in the armed forces, a career tech program, college or gainful employment when they finish.”
For non-Frankfort students, academic records should be emailed to Kristen Donovan at [email protected] while completing the application.