Parents, teachers frustrated with Columbus schools' decision to cut online academy

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – In the next six months, some families enrolled in the Columbus City Schools’ online academy will have to find a new school.

In September, the district announced the kindergarten through sixth-grade portion of the program would be cut starting next school year. Parents and teachers at the online school have taken to social media over the last week in strong protest of the decision.

At Tuesday’s board of education meeting, there was a large turnout asking the board to reconsider its decision. The protesters carried signs and presented a petition of more than 600 teachers asking the district to not follow through with the plan.

“We're a small portion of Columbus City Schools, but we're a vital portion,” academy teacher Jennifer Harvey said. “We provide a service that the brick and mortar schools can't provide and that some of the families need.”

In the fall of 2020, the Columbus Online Academy was introduced as an alternative to full-time in-person learning in the district. 

“At the time when we started the program, there were over 2,000 families that chose this option,” Columbus Superintendent Dr. Angela Chapman said. “And now three years later, there's about 150 families.”

Chapman said that in September, a decision was made to cut the K-6 portion of the program, citing low enrollment and a loss of federal funding.

Some district teachers have pushed back on the decision.

“For some, it's their only option because these… some of these students are unhoused, so they don't have necessarily access to a school close by,” Harvey said. “They might be in a domestic abuse situation where they're constantly moving and then they constantly can be in school because all they have to do is have a computer.”

And for families with students in primary school, their future is uncertain.

“I went with that option because it's safer for my daughter to be home,” parent Maricella Hernandez-Martinez said.

Hernandez-Martinez had a daughter named Kailey in third grade. She said her older daughters were bullied in school, and she wanted something different for Kailey.

“We are so upset because I don't know what I’m going to do next year because I don't want her to go to her assigned school because it's definitely not in a good school,” Hernandez-Martinez said.

Teachers of the program have offered alternatives like reducing the number of teachers to try and keep hope alive, though the district has made it clear that this decision is final.

“I have a little bit of fight in me, and I will always fight for kids,” Harvey said. “And, you know, we'll obviously accept whatever happens, but I would not feel right as a teacher in Columbus City Schools if I didn't fight to the last minute for my students.”

The district has made it clear it will help families transition to a new home for their students, offering them alternatives in the district.