SEQUIM — Parents and students seeking more information about Sequim School District’s online offerings for the 2021-22 school year are invited to a Dungeness Virtual School (DVS) Informational Night from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. Wednesday.
The program will be in the Sequim High School cafeteria, 601 N. Sequim Ave. Attendees can review the plans, hear from current students and families and meet the staff.
The biggest change coming to DVS for the 2021-2022 is moving to a full kindergarten through 12th-grade school, VS Principal Vince Riccobene said.
“A number of families have chosen to stay remote,” he said last week. “Starting an online in the middle of a pandemic and then switching to a remote learning model, there’s confusion for everybody.
“We really want people to understand your remote experience is different (than the virtual academy).”
Riccobene said the staff can help explain the differences in everyday learning and expectations between what DVS offers versus what students have been experiencing with the district’s hybrid learning model.
Instead of six instructors, for example, Sequim secondary students — along with their younger classmates — log on to one system, Edgenuity, and use the system of online curriculum with a Sequim School District teacher “on the other end facilitating … (and) modifying as necessary for their unique needs,” he said.
Riccobene said the virtual school can accommodate an influx of students, hiring staff as enrollment grows.
For more information or to register, call 360-582-3433 or see sequimschools.org.
State Superintendent Chris Reykdal’s May 13 announcement that all Washington state students will be learning on campus full-time this fall included that students may choose to enroll in a remote learning program, but “school districts may not offer hybrid or remote learning to the exclusion of full-time, in-person learning for any student who seeks that option.”
