Thousands of virtual Horry County Schools students request transfer back to classrooms
More than 3,000 Horry County Schools students currently enrolled in the district’s virtual program want to return to in-person classes.
Just two weeks into the new school year, the district opened up a transfer window for virtual school students to request a switch to the brick-and-mortar option, with a deadline set at midnight Sunday.
HCS received 3,030 such requests, including 1,535 elementary school, 845 middle school and 650 high school students, according to district spokeswoman Lisa Bourcier. A total of 266 students currently enrolled in the brick and mortar school also requested to be moved to virtual and have been placed on a wait list.
Bourcier did not immediately know whether any requests had been approved yet, but noted that students are required to remain in the virtual program until notified that space is available in their base school, and that process could take up to a week to process.
Before the school year began, the district informed parents that registering for the virtual school would require at least a semester commitment, but Superintendent Rick Maxey announced during last week’s board meeting that they received numerous transfer requests, and they wanted to open up this window since there was room available in the classrooms.
Maxey also noted the “massive” virtual program with more than 14,000 students is larger than most school districts in South Carolina.
Asked whether the district would consider moving teachers from virtual to classrooms to accommodate the requests, Bourcier responded that their “biggest challenge has been trying to balance the needs of our brick-and-mortar schools with the needs of the virtual program while continuing to provide quality programs for students in both options” and “adjustments could be made if needed.”
Students already in the classroom are currently learning under a hybrid model, meaning most students are split into two groups with each attending in-person classes two day per week, based S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control metrics of COVID-19 activity in Horry County.
Each group has more than 14,300 students, according to a presentation to the board.
If coronavirus cases in the area decrease to low spread, the district would move to full, face-to-face instruction five days per week, while all learning would be done remotely if cases increased to high spread.
This story was originally published September 21, 2020 at 11:42 AM.
