- April 24, 2024
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High school and middle school student class schedules could change come November as Volusia County Schools begins an overhaul of the Volusia Live model, following instruction to "fix it" at the Sept. 17 impasse hearing between the district and teacher's union Volusia United Educators.
At the School Board meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 22, board members were presented with a plan to implement solution to the remote learning option, which has students currently livestreaming lessons being given simultaneously to students in brick-and-mortar. The district aims to reduce the number of classes where teachers are expected to teach both modalities at the same time. In doing so, it is likely students will encounter teacher changes after the first quarter.
Rachel Hazel, director of human resources at Volusia County Schools, said that other fixes to the model include developing a code of conduct for parents and students to both sign, improve the attendance and grade reporting processes for Volusia Live regional teachers and re-evaluate testing options to look at the current testing requirements and remove those that aren't necessary. In addition, she said the district will like to hold student and parent protocol sessions.
“We dove right into the world of academia with Volusia Live, without real orientation sessions for how to be an online student," Hazel said.
The schedule changes also will occur during the same window of time in which Volusia County Schools is reporting student enrollment data to the Florida Department of Education, which is one reason the district is waiting until Nov. 9 to change schedules. Additionally, waiting until Nov. 9 is meant to safeguard first quarter student grades from getting lost. Elementary schedules could also change as a result of eliminating hybrid classes.
The board was appreciative that district staff was able to present fixes to Volusia Live so quickly. However, there were concerns over class sizes for brick-and-mortar as a result of eliminating as many of the "hybrid" classes as possible. School Board Member Ruben Colon said more students will inevitably end up in one classroom, and social distancing might not be followed if not they're not careful.
While he believes the changes will be good for the students, though some parents are concerned over schedule changes already, he said he was worried some teachers may end up not feeling safe teaching more kids in brick-and-mortar classrooms.
“This is a huge task with huge consequences that we’re going to have to be prepared to face," Colon said.
This story was updated at 9:37 a.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 23 to reflect schedule changes will also affect students in middle and elementary school.
