TULSA, Okla. — Serving students across the state from Pre-Kindergarten to 12th grade, a lot of outsiders think of Epic Charter School students at home on a computer.
“There’s a misnomer that we are purely a virtual school,” said Bart Banfield, Superintendent. “That’s not the truth.”
Epic has Virtual Learning Centers that are open five days a week in Tulsa and Oklahoma City. It’s designed for students who need in-person connection or support. New this year, they are expanding to more in-person opportunities.
“We are going to have students meeting multiple times a week for face-to-face meetings in all four quadrants of the state,” said Banfield.
The hybrid approach is called the Schoolhouse Model and created based on feedback from parents whose students craved more social interaction, particularly post-pandemic. It’s not required, but another option to cater to the variety of students searching for a different school option---whether it’s personality or learning style or student-actors or rodeo participants, students have varying reasons to choose Epic.
“School needs to be different for these kids to be successful and that’s what we hang our hat on,” said Banfield.
The advantage of flexibility comes with challenges, especially for kids transferring from a brick-and-mortar school.
“This environment does not have a school bell and so it’s important that the teacher work with the parents and students to create a consistent schedule,” said Banfield.
One benefit: Banfield says incidents requiring discipline are very rare, so time isn’t taken up with that, switching classrooms or dealing with noisy classrooms.
“I would say in a lot of cases, students knock out their work in 3, 4, 5, hours a day as opposed to a traditional setting where there are distractions,” he said.
It’s become a sought-after position for teachers as Epic’s pay starts at $60,000. Banfield says some teachers earn six figures.
“We had 600 certified teachers who applied this year who didn’t get a job,” he said.
That’s just another way Epic hopes to stay innovative and continue to reimagine the traditional public school model.
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