Educate Arkansas: Lisa Academy Arkansas Hybrid School
The Lisa Academy Arkansas Hybrid School combines virtual instruction with on-site support for students in grades K through 12. With us today is Heather Simmons, assistant principal at Lisa Academy. She’s here to tell us more about this unique learning opportunity.
Which campus are you located at exactly?
I am at the Hybrid School campus at 21 Corporate Hill Drive. We are housed in the original Lisa building, which was the first building that Lisa had here in Little Rock. It's been remodeled and we've got a whole new program going on over there.
I've been to the North Little Rock campus, but now you guys are growing like crazy.
We're growing and we will continue to grow. As long as there are students that need school, we will be there to provide it.
Tell me about the Hybrid School. How is that different from other school experiences?
The Hybrid School came out of COVID. The whole world shut down and people were trying to figure out how to deliver education to our kids in a new virtual environment. Virtual provided an opportunity for students to log on and continue their class work, but it didn't have the social aspect. The Hybrid Schools blends the two and provides a wonderful opportunity for students to hop online to do all their class work, but then they also have the opportunity to come to campus and have face-to-face interactions with their teachers and other class members. It's the best of both worlds.
How does their schedule work?
Students log in any time of the day, night, on weekends, or whatever it takes. In their actual classes, our teachers provide two to four times per week depending on the course. We have online live lessons that they can log into for additional support if they need that. Also, once a week they're invited to come on campus for a face-to-face class. There is an option to come every other week, but they do have the opportunity to come once a week if they want to come. Then every Friday, we're open for STEM Fridays in our Maker Space where they do all kinds of cool fun science stuff.
Why does this model work?
After COVID, there were a lot of families that wanted the option to be able to continue to have their family time. There are also students that maybe have jobs or students that you want to be able to hang out with their moms and dads or take vacations but still have the opportunity to get a really good comprehensive education.
There are a lot of people that have considered homeschooling, so this is kind of another option between full-time school or homeschooling. This is something in the middle.
Yes, we don't have one particular family. There's no cookie-cutter family that comes to the Hybrid School, but we do have a lot of homeschool families that have opted to come with us.
I love that there are so many ways to learn because as we've heard all children learn in different ways.
Yes, this just gives students another option.
Where can people find out more?
We are currently taking applications for the upcoming school year. All you have to do is go to lisahybrid.lisaacademy.org and fill out the application.
