Virtual school still working out kinks

Connie Richardson understands in the first year of a program there are bound to be kinks.

So Richardson, mother of a Lawrence Virtual School student, wasn’t surprised when she encountered some last week.

“It’s the first year so there are going to be glitches” Richardson said.

The Lawrence Virtual School is the result of a $101,709 state grant the district received to open a charter school. The virtual school is made up mainly of home-school students and it provides parents and students access to teachers online.

Last week all of the students should have been up and running — that was easier said than done.

Richardson’s child and, in fact, all of the 169 virtual school students still are waiting for their books to arrive. Lawrence Virtual School Principal Gary Lewis said students should be receiving their books today.

And some of the parents and students weren’t able to log in to the Web site run by K12, the company the district contracted with for curriculum, until late last week. Some of that was because of program problems on K12’s end. But the delay also occurred because some people registered their children toward the end of enrollment, Lewis said.

Lewis said, however, that most people do have computers and Internet access ready and in place.

Richardson said she was able to log in to the K12 Web site on Tuesday of last week. She said, so far, that she’s happy with the curriculum.

“It’s a great resource for me,” she said.

Lewis said parents and district administrators have been understanding about the hiccups with getting the inaugural year under way.

“Dealing with these problems now is going to make us more efficient and better in the future,” he said.