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KPS Says It's Too Late To Choose Virtual Classes For Coming School Year

The photo highlights a yellow-orange banner on a brick outside wall at El Sol Elementary in Kalamazoo, proclaiming that El Sol is a Promise school. The doorway to the building is in the background.
Sehvilla Mann
/
WMUK

Some parents with children in Kalamazoo Public Schools are calling for the district to reopen enrollment for virtual learning. During Tuesday night’s school board meeting, parents said circumstances around COVID have changed since they chose to send their children back to the classroom. KPS offered families the option of in-person or online instruction. They had to decide back in May. Kalamazoo Schools Superintendent Rita Raichoudhuri says it’s too late to make big changes now.

“Given that we are one of the largest school districts in the state we needed families to make their decision by a certain date so that we could plan for a successful opening in the fall”

Some parents say that other districts have been able to pivot. However, Raichoudhuri says KPS doesn’t have the staff, the money, the space or the time to work out the complex logistics of reopening enrollment for virtual learning on such short notice.

Raichoudhuri says the district has an in-school safety plan for preventing the spread of the virus. It includes back-up plans in case they are forced to close schools or the whole district if there are outbreaks. 

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