Jennifer Lambert's daughters, Cali (right) and Brooklyn, have enrolled in Kamloops Open Online Learning, which has seen a major increase this year (Image Credit: CFJC Today)

By Chad Klassen

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Kamloops family chooses online learning as safest route amid pandemic, enrollment climbing at KOOL

Sep 25, 2020 | 4:29 PM

KAMLOOPS — Jennifer Lambert’s daughters will soon start online learning. Cali and Brooklyn are offically enrolled in the Kamloops Open Online Learning, or KOOL.

With COVID-19 in the community, Jennifer didn’t feel comfortable sending her girls back to school.

“It was just simpler and easier on them to manage with all the extra change. Just to come up with a routine at home and incorporate as much as we can. The KOOL program, they’ve been extremely supportive,” she said.

Additionally, Lambert’s newest daughter, 10 month old Dallyn, hasn’t received up-to-date vaccinations due to the pandemic. The prospect of her older daughters going to and from school scared her a little. “While the pandemic, and while this is happening, allowing my children to be a part of a social experiment — because we don’t know what’s going to happen — it just kept everyone safe,” said Lambert. “My baby is not protected by a lot of things, not just the COVID.”

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Lambert’s daughters enrolling in KOOL is following a district-wide trend. Paul Hembling is the principal at KOOL and says the demand for online learning has been higher this year.

“Since the minister’s announcement about returning to school face-to-face, there’s definitely been an uptick and that uptick has been pretty steady through the month of September. We’re doing our very best to process all those new registrations as quickly as we can,” noted Hembling.

According to the school, there are just under 500 students officially enrolled, but the numbers climb daily as the school processes registrations. There is no waitlist at KOOL. The district is accepting as many students who prefer to learn online during the pandemic. More teachers have been hired to accomodate the increase.

“Between a doubling and tripling in terms of our teaching staff at each of our programs, but it’s not an equal increase in demand. The younger grades, there’s definitely a greater increase, so most of the additional staff have been added to our K-7 program.”

KOOL, which has been around since 1998, is preparing for more students if a second wave of COVID-19 comes to Kamloops. Hembling says the district may see more kids return to in-person classes if the situation improves.

Either way, Jennifer won’t be sending Cali and Brooklyn back to school this year.

“I would hope that a lot more precautions are put in place. I would hope that more protection for teachers and our staff and our children,” she said. “I want to see a little more understanding of how this is going to work because so far, from what I’ve seen and heard from people around me that have been sending their children and decided to go that way, it just seems like a lot of potential for failure.”