HUMBOLDT — Online attendance for Horizon School Division schools has remained consistently around 120 throughout the 2021-22 year, with some K-9 students returning to in-person while other students shifted to digital as restrictions loosened.
Randy MacLEAN, Horizon’s deputy director of education, delivered his report to the school board during their April 13 meeting.
He said that while restrictions loosening in February did return some K-9 students to in-person, it made others choose the virtual option resulting in similar numbers overall.
Unlike other divisions, including the North East School Division, Horizon has been continuing virtual education as an optional opt-in model since it was first introduced during the pandemic.
Grades 10-12 have a separate distance education program which existed pre-pandemic.
“We saw some students come back to school, but inverse to that we saw some parents make the decision that because the masking mandate was removed, for safety reasons for their own child we had some students transition back to learning from home when they were previously face-to-face,” MacLEAN said.
He said that while the Division is facing budgetary pressures for the coming year, the learning from home program is planned to continue throughout the region.
“Consistently over the last several years there has been interest, if interest is maintained then we expect the program to be maintained,” MacLEAN said.
“Parents vote with their feet. If the students are there, the program will be there, if they’re not then it won’t be.”
