With students in Pine Bluff and Jefferson County heading back to classrooms in just over two weeks, school administrators are preparing for different methods of teaching as compared to previous years.
Rather than students spending their entire day in classrooms, the Pine Bluff, Dollarway and White Hall Districts allowed them to choose between in-class or virtual learning and according to the Superintendents of the three districts, there will be vast differences in attendance.
Doug Dorris, the Superintendent of the White Hall District said about 20 percent of the students in his district chose the virtual route while Barbara Warren, who is superintendent of both the Pine Bluff and Dollarway Districts said about 70 percent of the students in both districts have chosen the virtual route.
Dorris, Warren and Steven Bloomberg, President of Southeast Arkansas College appeared on the Oldies 101.3 morning show Thursday morning, and Dorris and Warren talked about those differences.
At SEARK, Bloomberg said about 50 percent of students will attend class on-campus and the remaining 50 percent will take the virtual route. He described that as a change in the “business model” and said he expected that to be permanent.
“I don’t think business is going to go back to normal when this is done,” Bloomberg said.
Dorris and then Warren agreed that the changes taking place are probably going to stick around.
