CCHS’s Wolfe to head team for new innovative campus

By James Grob, jgrob@charlescitypress.com

Larry Wolfe, the associate principal at Charles City High School for nearly nine years, will lead the school district’s new virtual and alternative learning campus as the innovative campus principal.

“This might be the most challenging thing I have ever done as a school administrator, trying to bring all of these entities together and be successful,” Wolfe said. “We will try different solutions as we move forward; This way, we will find strategies we can do and the plans we should stick with.”

The goal for the new campus is to help all students learn no matter what they need. Wolfe’s new role, which was approved at Monday’s school board meeting, will begin in the 2021-22 school year.

“It’s not a cookie-cutter plan,” Wolfe said. “It’s a plan that asks families what students need to be successful.”

This new strategy will include all innovative learning components: Home School Assistance, School to You, and Carrie Lane High School. This new leadership role will help students with alternative learning and help all alternative learning teachers deliver success for their students.

At its March 23 meeting, the Charles City School District Board of Directors instructed Superintendent Mike Fisher to launch a new “innovative school campus” that will specifically meet the needs of at-home learners through digital delivery.

The board designated up to 30% of the money the district receives from the third round of COVID relief to be the funding source.

“We’re going to see an increased demand for digital learning,” Fisher told the board. “It’s not for everyone — it’s probably not for the majority of our people — but we still have a number of students who would like to continue with the digital learning format that we adopted under COVID.”

Fisher said he wants the district to respond to that and meet the needs of the students in the district, some of whom have excelled under the district’s School-To-You program.

School-To-You is a state-mandated online learning option that will be available for the entire school year, deemed necessary because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

At previous meetings, the board had discussed offering students an academy of alternative learning in Charles City, similar to the home-school assistance program or the Carrie Lane alternative school.

Fisher has said the academy will be its own school, with its own staff, teachers and administrators who are specifically trained to teach remotely so to take the burden off of “brick-and-mortar” teachers who are currently teaching both in-person and remotely.

Wolfe will be working with experienced faculty members, including Josh Dean, Dan Caffrey, Don Betts, David Voves, Marie Conklin, Naomi Yaddof, Susan Leeper, Stena Schmitt, and Julie Molstead along with current faculty members. They will combine resources and unite to serve students and families who choose to continue with School to You, Home School Assistance, Carrie Lane High School and credit recovery after this COVID season.

COVID funding provided by the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund (ESSER) will cover Wolfe’s $100,000 salary for the 2021-22 school year.

“The people who are working with the School to You program have learned through successes and failures throughout this school year,” Wolfe said. “I’m nervously excited, but I know I will put in a great effort, and so will the people around me.”