A Campus Portal message was sent out to students and families on  Wednesday, September 30 by the Stoughton Area School District with the link to a google form survey, hoping to gain insight into public opinion on the current virtual learning schedule. 

“The reason we sent that out is because we need some feedback, after a month of doing virtual learning, [on] what we can adjust and what we can do better,” SHS Principal Mike Kruse says. “We heard from some parents that there’s not enough of either synchronous or asynchronous [learning], we’ve heard from kids it’s way too much, and we’ve heard from some students that it’s not enough.” 

The Stoughton Area School District administration wishes to provide the best possible learning experience for students and families given restrictions set by COVID-19 and related mandates. 

“I think [our current schedule] is the best we can put together as of right now, because what’re our options? When you say, ‘Hey, I’m having you log in seven times a day […] and it’s going to be 50 minutes you have to be on camera’, people are like ‘No way’.” Kruse says. “So then you think, okay, we have to condense it down and do [hours] one through four and five through seven […] [but] when we get to hybrid, […] [students will be] zooming seven hours a day, because they’ll have to do class while their peers are in the building. […] We’re trying to get people into that mode so they’re ready to go.”

In the meantime, while SHS students continue virtual learning, Assistant Principal Liz Hrodey shares concerns about the amount of work students are doing outside of their synchronous lessons.

“My biggest worry was how are we going to have kids do any other homework outside of the class- how are they going to be able to get that workload right? It’s about the quality of the work you’re doing as you’re gaining your knowledge and going forward in school.” Hrodey says, “So we are definitely learning a lot. But the big thing is to keep the students and the teachers in that forefront, because they’re doing all this work.”

Any final decisions on returning to in-person learning are left up to the school board, following Dane County health orders, but the results of the survey provide much needed information for administration.

 “I would say we’re always looking to improve, so we always have to ask the question […] is there something we can do that would really make [virtual learning] smoother? And that’s what we continuously ask,” Kruse says. “There’ll be more information as we work as a staff, after the first quarter, […] to make sure that we’re making the right choices to do the best we can [to be] making good choices still.”