Tough Choices For Wesley Chapel Parents

School is returning this fall, one way or another, and area parents have some tough choices to make. Those decisions only get harder with each passing day.

On June 18, Pasco County schools announced that parents will have three choices when classes resume in August. The deadline to choose had been July 1, but it was extended to Wednesday, July 8, the day after this issue reached your mailbox. 

The three choices are as follows:

* A return to traditional, brick-and-mortar schooling, with special social distancing and enhanced disinfecting measures implemented, as well as mask requirements.

* Pasco eSchool, a franchise of Florida Virtual School (FLVS), which writes the courses that are taught by Pasco County teachers. Students work on assignments during non-traditional hours, with contact with teachers and classmates during web-based class sessions and other technology.

* A hybrid version of traditional & virtual school, being called “mySchool, for students not yet comfortable returning to campus, but who want to remain connected to their schools. 

Students will attend scheduled classes every day via their computers, with synchronous class meetings. Students will have access to teachers during regular school hours, and attendance is taken daily. 

As parents wrestled with these difficult decisions, the number of Florida’s positive Covid-19 tests skyrocketed, raising new concerns and doubts, resulting in the deadline extension. 

Superintendent of Schools Kurt Browning, who announced the Pasco Schools plan, revealed just a few days later that he had tested positive for Covid-19. And, the coronavirus-related death of a 17-year-old Wesley Chapel High rising junior was being investigated by the Medical Examiner’s Office.

The Neighborhood News spoke with three parents, each of whom made different choices prior to today’s deadline. Each parent we spoke with stressed that they would reassess their choice as the pandemic played out, but they were each ready to move forward with what they felt worked best for their respective families. 

The Willis family (l.-r.: Ethan, Chloe Alicia & Will) chose the “mySchool” hybrid option for their family for the 2020-21 school year. (Photos: Charmaine George)

Alicia Willis – mySchool

Alicia Willis considers herself an optimist when it comes to Covid-19. She’d like to think the virus will die out or become more manageable before schools re-open in August, or that a vaccine will be found.

But until then, she’s not quite ready to send either of her kids, a rising first grader and a rising fifth grader, back to Sand Pine Elementary.

Instead, she chose the mySchool option for her children, which will allow them to attend school remotely and still follow the standard school schedule and bell times.

Alicia also strongly considered Pasco eSchool, where students work on their own schedules with different teachers than they ones they had in traditional school.

“Going back to brick and mortar was eliminated (for us) immediately,” she said. “I do think they did a great job with the choices.”

Unlike Pasco eSchool. Alicia’s kids still will be learning along with their usual classmates and teachers.

“It was important to me that they get to have the teachers they are familiar with,” she said, adding that she thinks mySchool will make the transition back to regular school, should it come in January, much easier.

Alicia says her kids adapted well to online schooling this spring, and she didn’t mind doing the teaching. But, she also says that her kids asked often about their friends and teachers at school. 

Even before the three choices for the fall were put forward by Pasco County Schools, Alicia had decided her kids would be staying home this fall. 

And, she said, the rising number of positive Covid-19 cases in late June, just before the July 8 deadline, made her more confident in her decision.

“I believe it will make some parents think twice and possibly reevaluate their decisions,” Alicia said. “Parents going back to work may not have another choice. I’m blessed to have the choice that I have.”

Kelly McDowell, with daughters Avery (left) and Audrey (right), has chosen the traditional brick-and-mortar school option for the 2020-21 school year.

Kelly McDowell – Traditional School

Kelly McDowell started online learning at her house at 8 a.m. every day. She says her third and fifth graders were expected to be up and ready to work. It took only a few hours each day for them to complete their assignments. Sometimes, they would work a little extra so they could have Friday off. 

An accountant who is happy she is fortunate enough to have a flexible schedule, Kelly enjoyed her extra time with her kids.

But, Kelly said it could never replicate the benefits of a classroom at a brick-and-mortar school. When it came to making her choice, Kelly chose a traditional setting for her children, and plans to send them back to New River Elementary in August.

“I really feel the social aspect, and face-to-face interaction, is really valuable for them,” Kelly said. “They need structure if school is going to be beneficial (for them).”

Kelly says her job is flexible enough that she could continue to work at home. So, she did seriously consider the online options, and while she says that mySchool may not be feasible for her family, Pasco eSchool (see next column) “might still be in the back of my mind,” due to its more structured format.

But, Kelly’s kids like their mom’s choice. It was what they wanted.

“The kids were very, ‘I wanna go back to school,’” Kelly says. “I told them they would have to wear masks, be extra vigilant and worry not about just themselves, but others, too. They were very adamant about going back.”

With the potential for school openings still more than a month away, and Covid-19 unfortunately dominating the recent news headlines in the Sunshine State, Kelly says she reserves the right to change her mind. 

“If Florida becomes the new New York,” she says, “then that decision is going to change.”

When it came to deciding what to do for the 2020-21 school year, Samantha Billington (left, with daughter Alanah and son Travis), chose online options.

Samantha Billington – Pasco eSchool

Samantha Billington didn’t have just one decision to make, she had two.

Her son, 11-year-old Travis, enjoyed his online learning experience last spring when he could no longer attend Union Park Academy.

Her daughter, 15-year-old Alanah, not so much.

As a high schooler at Wesley Chapel High (WCH), Alanah was eager to get back to school to be with her friends. Initially, Samantha thought she would keep Travis home, and let her daughter return to traditional school.

But, the news on Covid-19 just got worse.

“As time went on and we not only had a rise in cases but also a tragic loss of a boy that went to the same school as (Alanah), we decided it was best to postpone the traditional school setting,” Samantha said. “My kids going to school, being in a building with thousands of people five days a week just doesn’t make me feel comfortable.”

That was “heartbreaking” for Alanah, who will do mySchool this fall, with the hopes of returning to the WCH campus in January. But, Travis will do Pasco eSchool, and Samantha said he already has decided he wants to do that for the whole school year.

“We chose FLVS (Florida Virtual School) because we wanted a wider range of options,” Samantha said. “It is all winging it at this point, and we will adjust as needed.”

 Samantha is able to work from home, so it made sense for the kids to learn at home. She is confident her children can still have normal social lives via technology and with friends in the neighborhood. 

“This virus is not going to just disappear,” Samantha said. “It will be around for a long time and until we have trusted environments, like enforced social distancing and regular sanitizing, or a medical solution, then I feel very confident it will remain an issue.”

Pasco Offering Three Options For School Return

Schools in Pasco County will be back in session this fall, but what that means and looks like for your student will be up to you.

On Thursday, superintendent Kurt Browning announced that parents will have three choices when classes resume in August.

  • Traditional: Just what it says — campuses will re-open and students will return to classes, just like before the Covid-19 pandemic shut schools down in March. There will be special social distancing measures taken, and children who bus to school will be expected to wear a mask, though wearing masks will be optional on campuses.
  • mySchool: This is an option for students not yet comfortable returning to campus, but who want to remain connected to their school. Students will attend scheduled classes every day, with synchronous class meetings. Elementary students can expect daily lessons with face to face connections, while secondary students can expect daily face-to-face connections for every period. This is expected to take most of the pressure and responsibility off parents who have had to take on the role of teacher in many cases.
  • Virtual: A full-time virtual school where students work on assignments during non-traditional hours, with contact with teachers and classmates via technology.

“There’s an option here for everyone,” Browning says.

Parents are being asked to study the information online at pasco.k12.fl.us, and then choose what they believe will be best for their child by filling out an online form right HERE.

The deadline to make a choice is July 1.

Despite Short Notice, Pasco Schools Respond In A Big Way

At Pasco school sites across the county, including Quail Hollow (above) and New River elementary schools, more than 1,000,000 meals were distributed to out-of-school students. (Photo: Charmaine George)

In early March, as they do every year, Pasco County schools started putting together plans to feed students who wouldn’t be in school during the 2019-20 spring break.

Little did they know, however, that shortly after they started preparing, the decision to keep students home from school due to Covid-19 fears would come down on April 13…and then be extended…and then, finally, extended right through to the end of the academic year.

“It just came out of the blue,” says Betsy Kuhn, the school district’s assistant superintendent for support services. “We had to pull inventory (to feed students) from all over the county. It was crazy.”

What started as seven sites distributing bags of food to students soon grew to 28 sites and some additional bus stop pick-up sites.

Instead of a few thousand meals for the week of spring break, the ongoing pandemic resulted in more than 1 million meals being handed out to students across Pasco County over two-plus months — by food service employees, school administrators, teachers and volunteers.

The official total heading into the summer: 1,095,537 meals served.

“I definitely could not have imagined we’d get to that number,” says Kuhn. “Every week I would write down the numbers, and then last week I started looking at it and thought, ‘Gosh, that has to be close to a million meals.”

In Wesley Chapel, meals were handed out at Quail Hollow (QHE) and New River elementary schools. At New River, more than 10,000 meals were served on May 19 (which included additional meals for the following week, when there were no pick-ups because of Memorial Day weekend), bringing the total served at that location to 70,942.

That last week, nearly 10,000 meals were served at Quail Hollow — which wasn’t a site the first two weeks — to bring its total to 58,942 meals served.

Kara Smucker, the principal at QHE, lauded the effort by the Pasco School District on such short notice.

“This is a big task, and there has been so much guidance and support,” she said. “I appreciate all the hard work for all the kids in Pasco County.”

In addition to food pick-ups, the District also organized food drives and distributed fresh produce donated by local farmers at impromptu Farm Fresh Pop-Ups.

Some of the food distributed at a Farm Fresh Pop-Up earlier this month at Wesley Chapel High.

At its first pop-up on May 6, more than 30,000 ears of corn were handed out in two hours at Pasco High in Dade City and at Pine View and Chasco middle schools in Land O’Lakes and Port Richey, respectively..

The next week, at pop-ups at sites across the county, including one on May 14 at Cypress Creek High off Old Pasco Rd., hundreds of 10-pound boxes of a medley of vegetables were distributed and exhausted within an hour.

The most recent Farm Fresh Pop-ups were held at Pasco, Fivay (in Hudson) and Wesley Chapel high schools. More than 1,500 boxes of fresh fruit and vegetables were distributed, including all 540 available at Wesley Chapel.

“No matter what we got, people responded,” says Pasco County Schools spokesperson Steve Hegarty. 

Food drives, at the Wesley Chapel Sam’s Club and at the Target in Trinity, produced 500 boxes of nonperishable items to go with donated turkey breasts.

Kuhn estimates that food distribution during the summer, which started last week, will be higher than usual. But after distributing more than 1-million meals and countless boxes of nonperishable foods and produce, the School District is ready for the challenge.

“It’s a good feeling to have done what we’ve done,” Kuhn says. “We have a lot to be proud of. And the people have been very very appreciative. Just really grateful. It’s been great.”

Pasco’s schools were just among the many local organizations and groups distributing food during these economically frightening times. Pasco County Commission chairman Mike Moore and District 38 State Rep. Randy Maggard hosted a drive-through food distribution site in the JC Penney parking lot at the Shops at Wiregrass May 20, with Farm Share — which distributes produce and meat donated by the state’s farmers — providing nearly 35,000 pounds of food to more than 700 cars.

The food included chicken, rice, milk, cereal, granola bars, canned foods and fresh fruits and vegetables.

“It was pretty incredible,” Moore said. “It was very humbling to see the need out there, and it was nice to be able to help.”