OKEECHOBEE, Fla. — The Okeechobee County School District said Wednesday that more students will be heading back to in-person learning next semester.
On Tuesday, parents in the Okeechobee School District got a letter saying next semester there will only be two options for students— in person or virtual.
“Okeechobee sync,” a hybrid option will no longer be available. Currently, it requires children learning from home to follow their normal bell schedule.
“We’re just not seeing the success in that option. We know we have a higher number of F’s and we know we are having difficulty engaging students using that model.”
Okeechobee Schools Superintendent Ken Kenworthy said 77 percent of students are doing in-person learning, 13 percent are in virtual school and 12 percent are in the virtual sync program. He said the expectation is students who aren’t performing well or are in the sync program will return to in-person learning next semester.
“If you’re in virtual school and you have multiple F’s we are going to be asking you to return, again at-less there’s some medical reason you can’t,” said Kenworthy.
Since the start of the school year, Annette Hartman's two kids, ages 10 and 12, have been attending school virtually.
“It took a long time, probably like 6 weeks or so, just to get the flow of what they were assigning and what they wanted done,” said Hartman.
