Board approves West Virginia’s first online charter schools – By the Associated Press
A new state board has approved West Virginia’s first statewide online charter schools.
The West Virginia Professional Charter School Board on Wednesday approved the West Virginia Virtual Academy and the Virtual Preparatory Academy of West Virginia, the Charleston Gazette-Mail reported. Both will enroll students from kindergarten through 12th grade starting next year.
The West Virginia Virtual Academy will be operated by Stride Inc. The Virtual Preparatory Academy is operated by Accel Schools, which also will run brick-and-mortar charter schools in Nitro and in Jefferson County.
The board approved three brick-and-and-mortar schools last week, including one in the Cheat Lake area of Morgantown that will be run by West Virginia Academy, whose president, John Treu, is a West Virginia University assistant professor of accounting.
Chicago might rely less on yellow buses to transport students next fall – By Mila Koumpilova, Chalkbeat
Chicago could rethink its reliance on yellow school buses next year after a fall plagued by school bus driver shortages left thousands of students without a dependable ride to school.
The district’s CEO, Pedro Martinez, told the school board Wednesday that he is looking ahead to next fall and weighing whether alternative modes of transporting students should play a larger role. For example, he said, some families currently receiving $500 monthly stipends to line up their own transportation for their children might like to continue that arrangement next year. Officials said 710 families have opted to receive that stipend.
Amid national driver shortages that have bedeviled school districts, Chicago is also teaming up with taxi firms and a company called RideAlong, which specializes in providing rides to children.
“I am not sure if for next year having yellow buses should be the exclusive mode of transporting students,” Martinez said. “Our old way of thinking might be too restrictive.”
Schools add wellness days to support mental health and block burnout – By Matt Zalaznick, District Administration
Teachers in Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools were recently asked what administrators could do to reduce spiking stress levels without taking the focus off student-centered instruction.
The North Carolina district is grappling with a challenge that’s disrupted schools across the country. Because substitutes are scarce, much of teachers’ time for planning is being swallowed up by having to cover for colleagues absent due to COVID infections or quarantines.
That stress has been added to the anxiety many staff members are already suffering as a result of direct impacts of the pandemic, Superintendent Nyah Hamlett says. “I was hearing from employees who were saying ‘It’s only September or October and it feels like March,” she says. “They’re just exhausted.”
Hamlett and her team conducted a staff survey and identified some quick wins to relieve the mounting stress, including new retention and recruitment bonuses for most staff of $1,000 this year and $500 next year. The district also added wellness days to the calendar and extra “fall break” time during the week of Thanksgiving. Wellness days are workdays during which teachers can catch up with lesson planning and other tasks while students are off. Principals have created lists of suggested tasks teachers can accomplish on wellness days, Hamlett says.
Staffing problems mount for Tennessee schools – By Nate Rau, Axios Nashville
Nearly one in five Tennessee public school teachers will be eligible to retire in the next four years, a factor that could exacerbate another troubling trend.
What’s happening: The Tennessee School Boards Association released a report last month showing 13,791 teachers (17%) will be able to retire by June 30, 2025.
- At the same time, the nation is in the grips of a teacher shortage that is likely to outlast the pandemic, Axios' Erica Pandey reports.
Why it matters: The double whammy of staffing problems in Tennessee could create a crisis.
- "Districts across the state already have problems filling vacancies," TSBA assistant executive director and general counsel Ben Torres tells Axios. "This issue will only grow if more teachers decide to retire."
Driving the news: Axios' Erin Doherty reports that one in four teachers nationally said they were likely to leave their jobs at the end of last school year, according to a report by the RAND Corporation from March. That's compared to one in six who prior to the pandemic said they were likely to leave their jobs.
