New special education, Virtual Academy courses

By Shelby Stewart-Soldan
Staff Writer
Oxford Twp. — The Oxford Community Schools Board of Education approved the district course catalogue for the school year, including additions for the Special Education courses and the Oxford Virtual Academy courses during its regular meeting on Aug. 13.
“The course catalogue update, usually when we bring it forth, is honestly a lot of making sure the dates are correct, they’re reflective of our new board member names, our new administrators, and so it’s usually just revamping and ensuring it’s up to date in that sense,” said Anita Qonja-Collins, assistant superintendent of teaching and learning. “So 99% of the time what you’re approving is just those types of updates.”
While the majority of the course catalogue is the same, there are two additional courses planned for the special education department and four additions to OVA. All of the changes are due by Aug. 28 to the county, which is then communicated to the state.
“So, as far as the special education classes, additions go to the course catalogue,” Qonja-Collins said. “You may remember back in May, we came to the board and shared about the student success program. They established a program to help bring students to school. We had students that were resistant to coming to school, they had anxiety, lack of engagement. And so, coming up with a system to help provide a safe space for them to go and receive social emotional support, academic support, that classroom is actually quite inviting.
Qonja-Collins said the issue with the classroom is that the students were not earning credits they needed for graduation, so they have revamped it to a very similar course, but each hour would focus on a different subject, such as ELA, math, a transition planning course to help students make post-secondary goals, and personal wellness to help with skills like nutrition, exercise and mental health.
The second class added for the special education students would mirror the work-based learning/employment skills opportunity that is currently offered to general education students.
“If they’re interested in accounting, they can go out to an accounting firm, and earn hours and credits and experience towards that path for them,” said Qonja-Collins. “We don’t have anything similar for special education students currently, so this would help create that opportunity for them. Participating in this course would allow them to learn essential job skills, filling out a job application, simple things like dress code at work, how do you interact at work, how do you keep up with your schedule, and it would allow them to get a job and also have our teachers communicate with their employer to help them find success and coach them with their class.”
She said adding these to the course catalogue would help students with IEPS to earn more credits and find more success academically.
At Oxford Virtual Academy, the additions would include ELA 9, world history, K-8 Stem, and K-5 Spanish.
The additions of ELA 9 and world history would be in collaboration with Oxford High School to study the anchor texts and assessments that the high school students use, which allows for better learning cohesion.
All of these will also fill both OVA needs and the needs of the shared-time program.