CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Students may not be returning to school in-person, but learning continues with these unique and creative learning options. The start of the new school year is less than a week away for more than 147,000 CMS students who will all be returning virtually.
But while their interactions with their teachers will be online, we’ve learned dozens of creative in-person alternatives have popped up, offering students a safe place to conduct remote learning pods.
From non-profits to churches and even banks have said they plan to open up their doors to students this fall, sharing their space and WiFi. Cornelius-based Aquesta bank is one of them.
The bank said they have community centers in three of their bank branches, which they plan to open up to learning pods. The locations include their Operations Center in Mooresville, the main branch in Cornelius and the Huntersville branch.
“I thought, well this would be a great use of our space, allow these children to come in here, use our WiFi, use our facility,” Aquesta Bank VP Laura Engel said.
Engel said the bank has teamed up with the Make an Impact Foundation. Together they’re coordinating volunteers and managing donations, so the kids can also receive snacks and lunch and have support while remote learning. They said they are still accepting applications for students and are still in need of volunteers and donations.
Across town in Chantilly, Liz and Holly of the Jolly Lollies, known throughout Charlotte for their children’s concerts and music classes, have plans underway to open their Mothership to students as well.
“Holly and I both did our own children’s online learning in the spring and we both commiserated with the idea of having to work alongside facilitating their learning,” Liz Corwin Seegers said. ”It was really birthed out of that, just wanting support families in our community who are working parents, that just needed someone else to facilitate that learning.”
The duo said they’ll serve 43 K-3 students, facilitating their remote learning while also adding in brain breaks and some fun.
“Music, yoga and outdoor play, gardening, jump ropes, hula hoops,” Holly Johnson said.
They say they plan to hold a staggering open house for parents and students Friday, “and then we start Monday morning bright and early,” Corwin Seegers said.
“Liz and I, our passion is working with families and children and offering them as much as we can, whether it’s love or kindness, or giggles, or laughs, or music that’s what Liz and I and the Jolly Lollies are all about, and so to be a silver lining in all of this craziness, makes my heart feel huge,” Johnson said.
In Charlotte’s South End, the Collectors Room is trading in its fancy soirees to create a South End Study Hall.
South of Charlotte in Fort Mill, where middle schoolers will be on a rotating schedule, the Anne Springs Close Greenway is opening up its 2,100 acres for students grades 6-8, as part of a program its calling Discovery School.
The program plans to keep children on track with their learning, offering both academic and recreational opportunities each day.
