McKinley Academy in Manitowoc is changing.
MPSD Board of Education President Chris Able tells Seehafer News that the academy had both in-person and virtual learning.
However, the district is moving on from virtual learning because there isn’t much demand, and it’s costing the district hundreds of thousands of dollars.
“If you don’t have enough students to be able to pay for the cost of running it, then that’s something that you can’t continue to do,” Able stated.
Able also says while there was participation, “the results, the product, was not at the level that we would like to see across the district.”
Being a charter school also meant they would pick their curriculum to teach, which would stay the same.
But Able says the district will set the standards, “and we’ll be making sure that the minutes of instruction are appropriate. And we’ll be making sure that the students are achieving at levels that are our goals for the district.”
MPSD Board President Chris Able
McKinley Academy will primarily focus on high school students who need an alternative way to learn a subject that can’t happen in a normal high school classroom.
Able continues saying while there will be no virtual option, the teachers who were teaching virtually were either given another job in the district or have a different curriculum to teach.
The issues with McKinley came up last year when former Assistant Superintendent Jamie McCall brought the issue to the attention of the board.
This McKinley Academy change has nothing to do with the former McKinley School, where the program started, and nothing to do with the Neighborhood, the group that wants to turn the old school into a warming shelter and a place for temporary housing.
