RAPID CITY, S.D. — The Rapid City Area School District is launching a virtual school pilot program in the fall, open to any student in the district who is interested in learning online. It’s limited with a selection process in place for an overabundance of applicants.
David Swank, Principal of Canyon Lake Elementary, says, “There’s been online learning programs for years both in this state and across the country and it’s something Dr. Simon has been interested in adding to the programming for Rapid City for a long time and COVID just really brought to light the need for the avenue.”
It’s just another option for students and families and if the pilot year goes good, they will open it up to more students. Swank says the online learning will be a fit for students who are highly self motivated, do better in a slower flexible pace or who may be overwhelmed by a school environment.
Swank adds, “What we are looking to do with the online school is to provide an additional pathway for students to be successful en route to graduation.”
There will be dedicated teachers to the online learning. The metrics for success of the program will include student achievement, progress monitoring, engagement attendance in virtual sessions, or increase in applicants.
“There’s a lot of great tools out there that allow you to recreate some of the things that previous you would only be able to do face to face,” says Swank.
And as part of a broader community effort to support language revitalization, Canyon Lake will be the host school for the Lakota Language Immersion pilot program, beginning with the Kindergarten class where students apply to involved.
“One of the things we strive for at Canyon Lake is that all kids see themselves reflected everyday, in the curriculum, in the building and in our interactions and there is something about the language that without that it is hard to feel whole,” says Swank.
The goal is that over a four-year span, there will be a new group of fluent Lakota speakers. In addition, RCAS will supporting cultural immersion and integration which will be taught throughout the day taught to all students.
Students do not have to live in the Canyon Lake Elementary attendance area to apply; however, since this is a school of choice, transportation will not be provided to students who do not live within the Canyon Lake attendance area.
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