Monterey County opens a new virtual academy

MONTEREY COUNTY, Calif. (KION) The COVID-19 pandemic made students, parents, and teachers adapt to a new way of learning. School districts in Monterey County created schools specifically that want to continue with online learning.

Latoya Bolden enrolled her second-grade daughter into the new Salinas City Virtual Academy. This academy will offer online instruction for students in kindergarten through sixth grade. Bolden said the school has a great program and will help her daughter s become more tech-savvy.

"Last year, was my first time with my child in first grade and, and we managed to succeed in that perspective and being online all the hours that we had to be online as well as the test-taking and stuff," she said. "So I think that she'll do well in this academy.”

Over 100 students have already enrolled for the next academic school year starting in August. Erika Tumminelli will be Salinas City Virtual Academy's first principal and she said theirs a huge interest in the virtual academy.

“There's a lot of families that for a number of reasons aren't ready to send their child back to an in-person classroom," said Tumminelli. "We want to make sure that all students are given high-quality education and this is the opportunity that we can provide for the students."

The Salinas Virtual academy currently has 6 teachers. Pricila McDonald is a parent and also one of the new teachers. Her online experience last year changed her desired method of teaching. Mcdonals loves using technology and finding new ways to teach her students. But, it's important for parents to be there every step of the way and for some families, it may be challenging with working parents, she said.

"I was at home teaching, and my daughter was doing it online," said McDonald. "But because I wasn't there to help her constantly. It was really hard for her to focus, and I would find her falling asleep in class, which was not good."

As of this morning, the Salinas Virtual Academy currently has 30 applications waiting to be reviewed.
The academy will continue to accept applications and interested families are encouraged to apply.

North Monterey County Unified School District will also have a virtual learning school called, NMCUSD Virtual E-School. An informative meeting regarding enrollment will be held on Monday, August 2nd.