Fleming County Board of Education listens as FCAP Coordinator Ashley Fritz explains the benefits of the FCAP programs.
Dawn Floyd/The Ledger Independent
Dawn Floyd/The Ledger Independent
FCAP Coordinator Ashley Fritz shares how well students do in a program tailored to their specific needs.
Dawn Floyd/The Ledger Independent
FLEMINGSBURG — Students are excelling in Fleming County Performance Academy’s learning programs.
At Tuesday’s Fleming County Board of Education meeting, Coordinator of FCPA Ashley Fritz explained the mission of her organization.
“I’m going to go over a little bit about Fleming County Performance Academy and what that entails which is virtual learning, blended learning and work-based learning. Our district mission statement is uniting family and community to provide an equitable, high-quality education that meets the needs of students,” Fritz said.
Meeting students’ needs at the level they require and providing an individualized education that suits each student’s specific needs is the overall goal of the program and Fritz said she thinks the FCPA virtual academy is doing exactly that.
“This allows us to give them time to explore their passions and learn creatively, not just in a standard classroom,” Fritz said.
Fritz explained a lot of work is put in by her staff on this program as they handle individual prep in every content area for first-12th grades.
“This team works around the clock, virtual students don’t fit into the 7:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. time frame,” Fritz said.
Between all grades the program has 72 students, with the majority being high school students Fritz said. Currently, there are 56 students participating in the work-based learning program according to Fritz.
“They are out in the community working and gaining real-life work experience,” Fritz said.
Blended learning is an option that works well for many students according to Fritz.
“We work all summer with those students that apply and we build the best schedule to fit what they need,” Fritz said. She explained the blended learning schedule benefits the students by allowing them time to also join student organizations such as band or choir.
Numbers for virtual learning is a bit lower, Fritz explained this was due to transportation and the students’ ability to attend class daily.
“Our main focus this year for the virtual program has been to increase student engagement, we felt for students to be overall successful we needed to see them in person,” Fritz said.
Asking virtual students to meet in person may have caused some difficulty but Fritz said it was essential in building relationships with students (virtual students are required to meet in person every other day). Fritza said making these connections with the students helped the students feel more comfortable asking for help.
Fritz said there has been great progress made due to being more engaged with the students, to the point that this year there have only been two students put on academic probation for any length of time.
“The first thing we did that was different than in the past is we met individually with the parent, student, teacher and me before school started to make sure they had everything they needed to be successful and also to start building that relationship with the students, meeting them face to face,” Fritz said. She explained home school students are required to do weekly check-ins whether by Zoom or in person, a requirement they didn’t have in the past.
Seeing students regularly also benefits the students as they can get more in-depth help with any work they are struggling with which keeps students from getting overwhelmed, Fritz said.
Other than academia FCAP also offers club activities, polling students to find out their interests are and trying to meet their needs Fritz explained.
“We’ve had student leaders teach others digital art, we’ve had crafts, we’ve had painting, field trips, we’ve gone to the pumpkin patch. We’ve had a Thanksgiving meal and a Christmas party. We just try to provide not only academic needs but those emotional and social needs that some of these students don’t get from not being in person every day,” Fritz said.
Students and parents have given positive feedback about, Fritz said when rating overall satisfaction with FCPA an average score has been 4.4 (a high score).
“They like coming in, they like seeing their friends, they like relieving some of that pressure of trying to do the BPI on their own,” Fritz said.
When polled on how supported they feel academically, socially and emotionally, students indicated a high level of satisfaction with an average 4.4 rating which Fritz said she was proud of that response and the other positive feedback from parents and students.
“I’, super proud of that, as a school counselor I know that our students cannot learn unless their physical needs, their social and emotional needs are met and we really try to reach out to our students,” Fritz said.
