This year students had the option to do Tallmadge Online five days a week. There are 523 students in the district enrolled into the program. The online platform is through Edgenuity. English teacher Brin Charek is the online instructor for the high school program, serving as administrator of Tallmadge Online and Ohio Online Learning for the high school. Charek facilitates all communication between the students and parents in the online program. 

“I offer live Google Meet sessions with students and try to help students with any issues they may be facing in their coursework,” Charek said. 

Sophomore Reagyn Mangano is one of the students at THS signed up for online classes this year. 

“I decided to do online learning because I would not be able to see members of my family if I went to school,” Mangano said. 

Mangano enjoys doing online classes because she can do her work whenever she would like to. 

“It is very different [from in person leaning] because if you have a question on something it is not an immediate answer. You have to wait and possibly get further behind,” Mangano said. 

All of the students enrolled received school-issued chromebooks to do their work. Students do not have to sign in at a certain time to start their school work. Instead, they are able to work on it whenever they want.  

“[My favorite part about online school is] that I can go at my own pace,” junior Emily Hipkins said. 

The grades for Tallmadge Online are calculated through the Edgenuity platform. Assignments are auto-graded. The longer assignments are graded by their Edgenuity teacher.  It is the same grading scale as in-person learning. Progressbook is not used for Tallmadge Online.

“Each class has a teacher assigned to it, so there are many different Edgenuity teachers working with our students.  I am the only Tallmadge teacher working as a support for all high school students,” Charek said. 

Students are allowed to get a schedule that works for them so they are able to work on their work throughout the day.

Charek said, “There are positives and negatives to both [online and in-person schools].] Right now, I think I prefer being in school, but that may change over time as I get used to my new role.”