1,000 students have signed up for the virtual school in Vermilion Parish

The number of students who want to attend Virtual Vermilion School in the district is growing each day.
As of Tuesday afternoon, 1,000 students have enrolled in Vermilion’s virtual school in the parish. Enrollment will continue through July 27. By that time, there could be more than 1,200 students enrolled.
Assistant superintendent Ellen Arceneaux, who is in charge of curriculum for the school district, informed the school board that 1,000 students have enrolled in the virtual school district as of Monday.
Arceneaux said there is no maximum amount of students who can enroll in the program.
Virtual school is for kindergarten through 12th-grade students.
Virtual school means that learning occurs in an online environment and doesn’t require a student to attend a traditional “brick-and-mortar” institution. Courses, classes, and other services are all offered and completed via the internet and generally completed online from home.
Arceneaux told the board members that there would be a two-week grace period for students every nine weeks.
If students enroll in the virtual school, they have two weeks to decide if they like it. After the second week, a student in the virtual school can decide if he or she wants to go back to regular school or continue with virtue school.
Once the two-week grace period is over, the student is committed to staying for the rest of the nine weeks.
The same for regular school, Arceneaux explained. If a parent is worried about their student attending a regular school because of COVID-19, they also have two weeks to change their minds and enroll the student in the virtual school.
Arceneaux said there are positives that more than 1,000 students want to attend the virtual school.
• It will help with social distancings on campus. Each desk has to be six-feet apart, and the fewer students there are in the classroom, the easier it will be to keep the students six feet apart.
• There will be fewer students riding on school busses if 1,000 students attend virtual school.
Arceneaux explained that while there will be fewer students in the classrooms, the same amount of teachers will be needed. The teachers who are not in the classes will be required to help students in virtual school.