Glasgow schools working to insure students not fall behind as 20 percent of returning students opt for virtual classes

GLASGOW, Ky. – With school scheduled to start in just a couple of weeks, Glasgow High School is going to the extra effort to make sure their students feel well prepared after the spring months of virtual learning and summer break.

Online learning left staff and parents worried that their students would feel behind compared to a regular academic year.

But instead, Glasgow High School principal Amy Allen was impressed at how well her students fared despite the circumstances.

“They were consistently in contact with their teachers,” Allen said. “They attended their Zoom meetings, they completed the packets that they were supposed to, that we asked them to, so they showed a lot of grit during that time and a lot of sheer determination. ”

During the remainder of the spring semester, the high school focused on reinforcing their current material rather than learning new material. This helped students to not fall behind without in-person instruction.

“It’s very important to us at Glasgow that families not be concerned about students being behind, that students not be concerned about being behind, because there’s really no being behind at this point,” she said.

With regular instruction on track, upperclassmen of the high school still also have advanced placement and ACT testing to worry about, as well as college admissions. Junior and senior counselor Lori Siebold emphasized how important it is to have communication lines open to the virtual students in order to meet deadlines.

“Without them being here to hear me saying this deadline is coming, make sure you do this, make sure you do that, I’m a little worried about that, so we’re going to have to come up with some process to make sure those children who are choosing to stay online don’t miss those announcements,” Siebold said.

So far 20 percent of students are opting for virtual learning when school resumes in the Glasgow city schools. The deadline for parents to decide between virtual or in-person instruction is Friday.