SPRINGDALE, Ark. — With the recent spike in COVID-19 cases, you might expect more students to switch to virtual learning after the holiday break, but at Springdale Schools, it has been the opposite.
Since the holiday break, the Springdale School District has seen 250 students switch back to in-person after a virtual first semester. Some of those students are right here at Walker elementary.
“We had students in kindergarten all the way through 5th-grade return back to us from virtual,” said Springdale Principal Lynn Ryan.
Ryan says they had 23 students come back for in-person learning, so many that they had to make a new class.
“We had a combined third and fourth-grade classroom and with bringing these students back in from virtual we added an additional third-grade room and now have a third and a fourth instead of a combined,” Ryan said.
One of the students in that new class is third-grader Madison Buchwalter, who after learning virtually since March made her way back into the classroom on Monday (Jan. 4).
“I was glad to see my teachers, and yeah my friends, they were happy to see me,” Madison said.
She says for her, virtual learning wasn’t easy, especially when it came to her favorite subject, math. She says it was a challenge for both her and her mom Jennifer.
“The common core stuff I wasn’t taught like that so trying to help her with that and try to keep her on the same path the other students were on was really hard because I didn’t know what I was doing,” Jennifer said.
Both of Jennifer Buckwalter's kids spent the last semester learning virtually, but what worked for her older son didn’t work for Madison.
She says sending her back to school with the rising number of cases was a tough decision, especially because Jennifer’s father passed away in December from the virus.
“Seeing my family deal with the loss of my dad...it hit us really hard,” Jennifer said.
Despite the heartache and the uncertainty, Jennifer says she knew she made the right decision when she picked Madison up from school.
“I was like 'how was your day' and she said 'oh my gosh mom we did this and that we had so much fun' and it was nice to see how happy she was," she said.
Jennifer says although there is still uncertainty with the coronavirus, they have confidence the school is taking the precautions needed and they are also taking precautions at home.
Although 250 Springdale students switched back to in-person learning, 50 switched to virtual after the holidays.
