Bearing laptops and protest posters, students enrolled in Montgomery County Public Schools’ online learning academy and their families staged a sit-in Monday afternoon at the district’s Rockville headquarters to protest the program’s expected closure at the end of the school year.
The Montgomery Virtual Academy students chanted “MVA must stay” outside the front entrance of the 15 West Gude Drive headquarters, which also houses the Montgomery County Board of Education.
Approximately 30 students lined the concrete walkway and sidewalk outside the building, some sitting in foldable lawn chairs as they opened their laptops and headsets to log into their daily online classes. Several of the parents who accompanied their children said they hoped to speak with board members, but no district representatives had made an appearance as of mid-afternoon Monday.
The closure of the academy is the result of the school system’s efforts to close a $30 million budget shortfall between what the school board requested for fiscal year 2025 and what the County Council has allotted. On May 23, the council adopted its $7.1 billion county operating budget for fiscal year 2025, including $3.3 billion for the school district. The new fiscal year begins July 1.
The academy closure could save the district about $4.26 million, the amount that was included for the program in the school board’s recommended budget.
Montgomery Virtual Academy first opened in the 2021-2022 school year for students with prolonged health concerns or who thrived while learning from home during the pandemic. Students who apply and are accepted into the program remain enrolled at their home schools but take all of their classes online. They can also participate in in-person sports and extracurricular activities.
In addition to the elimination of the virtual learning academy, the school board is considering other cuts including the layoff of up to 150 educators, a delay in pre-kindergarten expansion, and increasing class sizes to close the budget gap. The school board is expected to finalize its budget June 11.
The district has not provided the potential savings of each proposed reduction.
Montgomery Virtual Academy families were notified Thursday in an online letter that the district has decided to close the program due to “budget constraints.”
Barbara Galasso, vice president of the Montgomery Virtual Academy Parent Teacher Council, said her two children are graduating from eighth grade next week via the academy. They were planning to move forward into the high school program prior to receiving last week’s letter.
“The school is so important, it’s a community … this is our real classroom,” she said. “There’s a lot of kids who are in real need.”
Galasso added that her children are thriving academically despite their medical obstacles. “They both have ADHD, they were born early–one has a retention issue–and they all have straight A’s and B’s right now.”
Galasso said she believes a shift to in-person schooling would be counterproductive for her children.
“My fear is that they are going to go to the brick-and-mortar [school] and it’s going to be all about the fashion, all about everything else … and they are going to lose the whole focus,” she said. “These classes are small–all I can say is we’re a community, look at how we came out [today].”
Hailey Ros, a junior at Col. Zadok Magruder High School in Rockville, attended the sit-in with her brother, Hayden, a freshman who is also enrolled in the virtual academy.
Ros said her participation in the academy’s Minority Scholars Program and as a news anchor with Virtual Voyager News–the academy’s morning announcements show–has helped her integrate into her school community more seamlessly than when she was attending classes in person.
“It was seventh grade, I was in person and … my grades weren’t the best,” she said. “When I switched to online … my grades have improved, and I’ve become a lot more able to be more social and join so many more opportunities.”
While fourth-grader Joi Crenshaw was participating in the sit-in, she also was attending classes virtually on her laptop. Sitting calmly beneath a tree with her laptop in her hands, she took off her headphones to share her thoughts about the program.
“I like going to school virtual because I can understand it more,” she said. “When I take breaks, I don’t have to leave the classroom–I can just take a break and walk around a little bit.”
Crenshaw’s mother, Toni, said she was surprised to hear about the proposed budget cuts that included the academy.
“[The program] has been such a huge benefit for our family,” she said. “Initially, I was a little bit shocked just to be honest because there are so many teachers, educators, and families who love the MVA school system … . To hear that we were right back at square one was a little disappointing,” she said.