By Nicole Asbury August 26, 2024 at 6:11 p.m. EDT Washington Post
Ameilya Coleman waited expectantly for her mom in front of their driveway Monday morning. She was ready to start the 10-minute walkfrom their hometo Dr. Ronald McNair Elementary School in Germantown.
Monday marked not just the first day of school for Ameilya and thousands of other D.C.-area students. It would be the third-grader’s first time taking classes in person.
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Before now, most of Ameilya’s education was through Montgomery County Public Schools’ virtual academy. But it closed over the summer as Maryland’s largest school system tried to reconcile a shortfall in its budget. The school board’s June decision left the families of over 700 students enrolled in the virtual academy scrambling to decide what to do in the fall.
Some students who are medically vulnerable were eligible for an online home and hospital teaching program that the Montgomery school district provides. But there were many other students, like Ameilya, whose schooling routine would change.
Ameilya’s mother, Barbara Galasso, took photos of the third-grader before they started theirwalk to the school. “Are you excited?” Galasso asked. Ameilya replied with a simple, “Mhm.”
Then, Galasso asked, “Are you scared?” Ameilya shook her head. “Are you sure?” She shook her head again.
Galasso admitted she was scared. One of her 13-year-old twins was bullied in elementary school years ago, she said. She was worried about those experiences repeating as her twins also started their first day at Northwest High School in Germantown. Already, the twin who had been bullied was targeted again while trying out for the high school’s volleyball team, Galasso said, when a girl went up to her and said, “Have you ever played volleyball before? Are you stupid?” Galasso called the athletic director immediately and said, “If one hair on my kid’s heads gets ruffled, I will sue the entire county,” she recalled.
The school system’s leaders “don’t understand the anxiety and mental torment they’re putting these kids through,” Galasso said. “We have to deal with these children.”
The Montgomery Virtual Academy was introduced in 2021 as an option for families who did not want to return toin-person classesafter the coronavirus closed schools. Families filled out an application to join.
Former Montgomery County Public Schools Superintendent Monifa B. McKnight included money to continue the virtual academy in her recommended budget for the 2024-25 school year. School board members briefly considered cutting the academy in February because it was covered by federal covid relief funds that are set to expire September, according to an email the school board sent at the time. But they chose to keep it.
In June, the board reversed course and eliminated the academy after the county council approved a budget that would give the school system about 99 percent of its requestbutleft a funding gap of about $30 million.School officials claimed that the academy’s graduation and attendance rates were lower compared with the rest of the district. The decision stunned some families, who rallied outside of school board meetings to call on the district to reopen the academy.
Some families appealed the decision in a filing to the Maryland State Board of Education but learnedit could take months before that process is complete, said Sterling High, a parent whose son attended the virtual academy last school year.
High’s two students are enrolled in the district’s home and hospital teaching this school year, buthe said the program is not “as comprehensive or comparable to what the MVA provided.”
Earlier in August, new MontgomerySuperintendent Thomas Taylor apologized to families in a letter for the way the closure of the academy was handled. He wrote the board made the decision to cut the program with the understanding that district administration would find a solution for the families enrolled. But that work did not happen, he said.
Taylor saidhis administration is working toroll out a hybrid program that would “not be identical but similar” to the virtual academy. If approved by the school board and funded, it would launch during the second marking period — which starts in November. He added that the solution wouldn’t work for every student since it would be designed “to serve only those with a demonstrated medical need.”
In an interviewwith The Washington Post earlierthis month, Taylor said that a majority of students in the academy “can return to a regular ed setting.”
“I get that it’s not their preference and that there’s going to be some challenges with that,” he said. “Our school team is there to support our students through those challenges and their families through those challenges.”
Galasso doesn’t think Taylor’s proposed hybrid program is an option for her daughters, and she is worried about their academic performance in a school building. She said that when the coronavirus caused schools to shift to virtual instruction, her twins flourished. Both of them have ADHD, she said, and were able to walk around when they needed breaks. Their grades were a mix of As and Bs.
“Their performance was incredible,” Galasso said. “I can’t even explain to you the difference.”
The family chose to remain online when the school system offered it in 2021. Ameilya followed her older sistersinto the academy when she started school.
But on Monday, that changed.
Ameilya walked a few paces ahead of her mom, carrying her pink Stitch backpack and purple lunchbox. She was excited to see her best friend and her teacher, she said.
Galasso wrapped her arm around her daughter as they approached McNair Elementary. They walked in through the school’s front doors together.
When Galasso emerged a few minutes later, she was crying.
“It’s just everything is brand new,” she said.Share83Comments
By Nicole AsburyNicole Asbury is a local reporter for The Washington Post covering education and K-12 schools in Maryland. Twitter
https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2024/08/26/montgomery-virtual-academy-closure/