Tustin's connected: Enrollment steadily rises for online elementary school

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Tustin's connected: Enrollment steadily rises for online elementary school

Oct. 15, 2015 Updated Oct. 19, 2015 11:22 p.m.

By BROOKE EDWARDS STAGGS / STAFF WRITER

Fifth-grader A.J. Bevacqua aims to play in the French Open one day.

Those aren?t the vague, fleeting dreams of childhood. A.J. speaks eloquently about how weekly yoga sessions help extend the reach of his 11-year-old frame and his goal to be ranked among the top 100 tennis players nationally by age 17.

Such lofty goals don?t always leave room for the conventions of youth. So rather than return to the classroom with his friends Sept. 1, the Santa Ana boy joined the inaugural class of Tustin Unified?s online program, Tustin Connect Academy.

?I love this school,? A.J. said. ?It has no limits.?

Tustin Unified is the second district in Orange County to launch a full online school, following a successful program run through Capistrano Unified since 2012. Tustin Connect Academy is open to any students in kindergarten through eighth grade, in TUSD or even beyond as space allows.

Students meet in person at least once a week, with those meetings plus optional morning lab hours in new classrooms at the future site of Heritage Elementary. They?re taught traditional curriculum by credentialed teachers, though they complete the work largely independently on their own computers and tablets or on devices checked out from the school.

?We try to be the best of home school, traditional school and online school,? Principal Dustin O?Malley said.

Enrollment has been rising steadily since the start of the school year, O?Malley said, with one or two new students transferring in each week. There are now 42 students total, with the highest concentration in the older grades.

That includes an eighth-grade ballerina who?ll perform in ?The Nutcracker? at Segerstrom Center for the Arts.

There are three students who do competitive jiujitsu, including one who travels from San Diego. There are a few child actors and a gymnast. There?s one student who broke his leg and a few others battling illnesses. Then there are those who simply didn?t feel comfortable in traditional school because of bullying or other issues.

?Every student has a different story, but it all makes sense,? O?Malley said.

Chloe Arnold, 13, is attending TCA with her sibling, Traehan, 11. Their family plans to move to Australia soon for around six months because they have family there and are considering a permanent move. Through TCA, they?ll be able to continue classes uninterrupted, doing their weekly check-ins via video conference.

?I was kind of against it at first because I wanted to stay with my friends from Orchard Hills,? Chloe said. ?Now I like it. It?s more open and flexible, and I think you get the same education.?

Chloe still sees her Orchard Hills friends on the weekends. She also made new friends at TCA, she said, spending four hours two or three days each week doing work on campus. Plus, she said, ?They have cool chairs,? with furniture that?s fittingly unlike a typical classroom.

Kristy Andre ? who teaches grades 6-8 at TCA ? thinks every class should look like this one.

Andre was one of a number of teachers from both inside and outside Tustin Unified who applied to teach at TCA, O?Malley said. From that pool, the district chose two teachers who?d been digital learning coaches for TUSD: Andre, a 10-year veteran with the district, and Emily McCourtney, a nine-year veteran who teaches kindergarten through fifth grade.

Launching such an innovative program while learning to teach all subjects and blended grade levels has been a lot of work, Andre acknowledged. But she?s loving it, she said, embracing the opportunity for creative lesson planning tailored to her diverse class.

?I love the students that maybe don?t fit in a traditional environment,? Andre said.

That appears to apply to a significant number of students statewide. Though data collection is limited, 6 percent of some 1,228 charter schools in a recent state survey said they offer virtual education, the California Department of Education reports.

Meilyn Ng, 13, was in the magnet program at Columbus Tustin Middle School last year. Between regular school hours, the stacks of homework she?d get each day and extracurricular activities, she said, ?I had no free time.?

Her younger sister, Bethany, already was planning to attend TCA to accommodate the fifth-grader?s growing demand as a child model. So Meilyn decided to join her sister for her eighth-grade year.

Meilyn now has dual enrollment at TCA and Columbus Tustin, where she still takes advanced orchestra and PE. She has more time to practice violin this way, she said, plus pursue her passion for making movies. And she feels she gets more attention from her teacher, since there are typically fewer students in the class and less lecture time.

Next year, Meilyn hopes to get into Orange County School of the Arts? film program.

O?Malley said some parents initially have concerns about how attending TCA will impact their kids? ability to get into competitive high schools ? particularly since they don?t receive letter grades. He assures them that, though students receive only a pass or fail in each class, they?re held to the same curriculum and must take the same standardized tests as every traditional student.

Another concern that appears to have quickly dissolved is socialization.

Though they may not spend the same number of hours with their peers each day, the TCA kids have formed a little family of their own, with fifth-graders coaching kindergartners and siblings who may otherwise avoid each other working together on science projects at home.

The school also is planning Friday trips to places like the Discovery Cube or a nature walk in Newport?s Back Bay. And some students have formed their own study groups to meet on Fridays and do work together, Andre said.

So far, it seems students and parents are pleased with the online academy.

?The structure of the program is giving our son the opportunity to learn grade-level standards at his pace while allowing him to fulfill his passion for playing competitive tennis,? said A.J.?s mom, Annie Bevacqua. ?We are grateful TUSD has created a program like the one at TCA.?

Parents? only going concern? That TCA stops at eighth grade, yet Capistrano Unified offers an online high school program called California Preparatory Academy.

That may change, O?Malley said. A high school program is a bit more complicated, though, he said, in dealing with letter grades and teachers who are specialized in particular subject areas. So TUSD is taking it one digital step at a time.

Contact the writer: 714-796-7963 or BStaggs@OCRegister.com
 
I guess if you like home schooling..it's an option but going to a physical school and interacting with adults and other children is a major reason why I send my kids to school. 

People are way too consumed by academic achievement in elementary school and junior high.
 
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