Burrell School District working on plan to help struggling students - TribLIVE

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Editor’s note: The original version of this story attributed school board President Pam Key’s remarks to a different school director.

Burrell School District is working on a plan to help students in academic trouble, including those having problems with virtual learning.

Superintendent Shannon Wagner told the school board Tuesday about district efforts to help students. About 20 seniors are in danger of not graduating, about 42 underclassmen do not have enough credits to graduate, a number of students in the middle school are failing two or more subjects, and 10 to 12 Stewart Elementary students in virtual learning are not doing well.

“The plan is to pull as many as possible into face-to-face education and to set up interventions for them as much as possible,” she said. Personalized learning plans can be developed before the district moves into the next school year, she said.

School board President Pam Key said she has heard complaints of a “massive” amount of work that is overwhelming some students in the fourth grade in Burrell’s distance learning program.

“These students are getting work like late middle school and early high school stuff — the amount of work and detail put into it is daunting,” Key said. “It’s one thing for a student with a parent that is helping, but what about for the ones who don’t?”

Wagner said the 10 to 12 students in the fourth and fifth grades aren’t making the grade academically and they are all learning in the virtual environment. “They are not getting online, not getting on to meet, and not doing their work,” she said.

Wagner explained that in the cyber learning environment, students have to be go-getters, willing to commit to make the time. “If it’s not a self-disciplined, self-managed kid, they are not going to survive in that environment,” she said. But some students can do very well, she said.

Currently, about 70% of Burrell students are attending school in-person, while other students choose to attend classes virtually or attend the district eAcademy or another cyber school.

Burrell administrators are learning from teachers what is working and what is not in the virtual programs to boost student performance, Wagner said.

In addition to academic help, the district is using grants to fund a licensed professional counselor and a social worker over the next two years for student mental health support, she said.

Mary Ann Thomas is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Mary at 724-226-4691, mthomas@triblive.com or via Twitter .

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