Grants Cibola County Schools recently announced its new partnership with Pecos Cyber Academy. This partnership is a great alternative for those who wish to be part of GCCS but want to participate online.
“We’ve lost kids to online education largely due to the pandemic.” Superintendent Lane Widner said, explaining that they wanted to be able to give Cibola County students an opportunity to do a local online school and participate in extracurricular activities such as sports or prom, which this will allow. “Our goal is to bring back the students we’ve lost over the years.”
The search for an online school has been ongoing for at least two years, since many students haven’t returned since the pandemic. The hope of GCCS is for thirty to fifty students to enroll through them for this academy. As of June 26th, ten to twelve students had already enrolled, which can be done at GCCS central office or school sites.
Because they would be registered with GCCS instead of Pecos Academy, students will be able to be a Laguna Acoma Hawk or a Grants Pirate depending on where they live as well as graduate with them.
“Not all students learn the same way. This option gives students who are more comfortable with technology a chance to succeed.” Widner stated.
This alternative is recommended for students who struggles with being bullied, interacting, prefer online education, or live in a rural location making their way to school long.
“For students living in remote areas, online classes provide a level of accessibility that traditional schooling may not.” Dr. Martin explained.
Widner said “We really want to educate our kids and make sure that everybody has an education so they can do what’s best for the next phase of their lives.”
These classes will be 100% online and take a synchronous approach, making it very much like being in school. They will have a principal, counselors, advisors, have access to special education services, and a schedule that they must follow. If students don’t log in one or two days, Dr. Martin, who is taking on the role of overseeing all online education, acting as a liaison between the academy and district and monitoring how the students are doing in their classes, will be aware and inform the parent.
GCCS will be building the online students’ schedules and courses, ensuring that what they learn aligns with what the public school students are learning, as well as following the same standards and benchmarks as the district. Pecos will assign the teachers, who are all licensed in New Mexico and endorsed in the classes that they teach. Because Pecos will just be providing the academic services, GCCS will be the ones proving technology such as Chromebook’s for the students to do their online classes. This program is free for parents and will be payed for by GCCS.
“We want to ensure that every child in Cibola County receives a quality education.” Dr. Martin stated.
“We have four pretty sound goals for our strategic plan.” Widner explained “The first one is academic success. The second one is highly qualified teachers and professional development for teachers. Our third goal is community engagement, and then we want to have safe schools in Cibola County, and so all of this… very much aligns. We want our students to be academically successful. We want to engage the community. We want to make sure that kids are safe and that they're getting a quality education. So [it] very much aligns with our strategic plan.”
One idea to promote this program is hosting family nights, which will allow for parents who are interested in this program or wanting to know their options to speak with Widner and Dr. Martin.
“We’re here to assist families through the transition and ensure they understand how to navigate this new educational landscape.” Widner assured.
This program will pilot in the fall as well as have an orientation.
“[You’re] welcome to call either of us or come by and visit us.”
To learn more about this promising initiative you can call Lane Widner at 505-285-2603 or Dr. Martin at 505-285-2620.