Samantha Swearengin, 7, uses a school-issued tablet Wednesday in her home in Limestone County. As a county schools virtual student, she was supposed to start instruction Wednesday, but communication delays, not enough teachers and other issues left students like Samantha waiting even longer to start the school year.

With a lack of teachers, lack of communication and lack of answers leaving many frustrated, the first day of virtual instruction for Limestone County Schools seemed to be the polar opposite of its first day of face-to-face instruction.

Around 2,500 students within the school system are enrolled in virtual school, with many parents feeling it was the safer of the two education options given the current pandemic. Yet as the school year neared, parents started reporting their frustration at not being able to get the answers and tools they needed for a successful first day.

Part of that was a lack of virtual instructors. In addition to having more students enrolled than previously planned for, some of the teachers hired for the job left before the school year began.

“We had an influx of about 700 kids in the second go-round (of virtual applications), so we’re trying to hire teachers to manage this,” said Kim Moody, LCS virtual coordinator for grades 6–12. “I actually had two teachers quit.”

Personnel actions approved Tuesday by the Limestone County Board of Education included the resignations of three virtual teachers. Superintendent Randy Shearouse said the district had interviewed and hired additional teachers this week, with Bill Tribble, LCS’ human resources director, later confirming they were back to full staff as of Wednesday.

That meant what was supposed to be the first day of virtual instruction was instead spent assigning students to teachers and training new hires for the job ahead of them. Moody, Shearouse and Tribble each said parents were being contacted as quickly as possible to get the school year started, and they hoped to have everyone ready to go by the end of the week.

“We’ve got teachers calling, getting through to parents, but it’s taking longer than a day because some calls are taking 20 to 30 minutes — which it should — but some have 100 students,” Moody said.

She said that’s about average for a 6–12 teacher, because they often teach based on subject matter and teach multiple grades each day. Still, that’s up to 50 hours of talk time per teacher, assuming the contact information is correct, the parent answers and no one needs more than half an hour.

Some families will also be contacted by email, and parents are encouraged to check their spam folder and make sure an attempt to contact wasn’t filtered erroneously.

Meanwhile, students who have not heard from their teacher yet aren’t going to be penalized for it.

“We’re going to be flexible,” Shearouse said. “… We’re doing our best to make sure everyone is notified. We’re going to work with them and make sure that the child receives what they need.”

Tribble said parents are welcome to reach out to LCS if they haven’t heard from their child’s teacher.

Accessing school

Another issue facing students is accessing virtual school. Shearouse said there was “a pretty big demand for computers to take home,” and campuses across the district were distributing devices to students this week.

However, even for those students who had a teacher and had a device, there was still the matter of receiving a personalized email address to use for school and the login information required for accessing Google Classroom and other platforms they’ll use.

Casey Swearengin, whose daughter Samantha is enrolled in virtual school this year, said her daughter spent the first day exploring educational games and apps on her school-issued tablet. The second-grader’s schedule is supposed to include weekly assignments, class meetings and more, but “without the classroom code, there’s not a whole lot you can do.”

Swearengin doesn’t regret choosing virtual school for her child, and she doesn’t think missing a few days at the start of the year will affect Samantha’s education overall. She said Samantha’s teacher has been “really good about keeping in touch,” and she thinks LCS as a whole was just unprepared for the number of families who opted to avoid face-to-face instruction.

“I feel like they underestimated how many students would be signed up for virtual school, so they were very unprepared,” Swearengin said. “It’s not necessarily a criticism; I don’t think anybody could have anticipated it, but I don’t think they had a full scope of awareness as to how this would be.”

However, she isn’t without concern. Her daughter wants details and answers that she can’t provide, and the experience so far has her wondering if another option might be better.

“I think I’ll just have to play it by ear and see how it goes,” Swearengin said. “I don’t know that this is going to be the best way for her to learn, especially if there’s not better organization in the future.”