Kingfisher Public Schools will enact a “virtual learning day” for the first time near the end of this month.

The designated date is Wednesday, Sept. 30, which was approved by the Kingfisher Board of Education during its regular meeting last Tuesday.

“All personnel will report as usual,” Superintendent Jason Sternberger said. “But the kids will stay home and do work.”

In a letter to school patrons later in the week, Sternberger said the move was essentially practice.

“To help us prepare with your child(ren) on how to transition to a district wide virtual learning day, we need to actually practice a virtual day before we have a situation requiring us to shut down our school for a short or long-term period,” Sternberger wrote.

During discussion at last week’s board meeting, it was also relayed to the board that the workload of teachers has increased exponentially due to COVID-19 policies and procedures.

Teachers not only have in-person instruction, but also have students who are distance learning.

“The amount of time it’s taking teachers right now to not even get caught up, much less get ahead, is significant,” Sternberger told the board.

There was some discussion of taking at least one virtual day a month.

“We’ll see how this one goes,” Sternberger said. “And we can discuss it at our next meeting before moving forward.”

Kingfisher High School Principal Todd Overstreet said having the day midweek will provide teachers and administrators the chance to gauge its effectiveness the next day rather than over a long weekend.

“Doing this will allow teachers to get caught up on some of the work they have to do that we don’t see everyday,” Sternberger said.

“Please!” said one of the half-dozen masked teachers who were in attendance.

In his letter, Sternberger said virtual days can be a remedy to other situations that cause school closures.

“Whether it is due to excessive student absences during the cold/flu season, bad weather days, power outages, loss of water or other emergencies that may have caused us to cancel school, those days can now be replaced with a virtual learning day,” he said.

Sternberger also noted that while school will not be in session, meals will still be provided to families.

“Meals may be picked up at Kingfisher Middle School between 10 a.m. to noon,” he said.