Ad Prima Charter School Opts for All Virtual Learning After Parents Speak Up

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- Ad Prima Charter School here Mt Airy gearing up for an entire year of virtual at both city campuses with a few exceptions for the younger students.

While some parents had hoped their children would come back to a classroom, 70 percent of parents fought to keep it all virtual.

"Every grade at the start of the year is going to be virtual, everybody. After the first two weeks we are going to be working on bringing in certain groups of kids who struggle a bit more," Principal David Brown said.

Kindergarten and first grade will be the only ones coming back to actual classrooms after the first two weeks following CDC guidelines.

RELATED: Back to School coverage at 6abc.com/BackToSchool

"We'll have less students in each classroom the second thing is all students will be required to wear masks," Mt. Airy Campus Site Director Jamal Elliott said.

But the big push for virtual learning at Ad Prima speaks to a recent ABC News Poll which found 55 percent of Americans are against public schools reopening with in-school instruction.

But numbers also show 59 percent of parents also worry their children are falling behind educationally.

Tony Chiles a father of a 4th grader at Ad Prima believes the school made the right call.

"The system is already in place and I would never put my child at risk just because it's not enough known about the virus," Chiles said.

Whereas parents like Randi Morgan wanted a hybrid model where there was some in person learning.

"My child really likes really to a traditional classroom, she likes walking the halls she enjoys seeing her friends, seeing her teachers," Morgan said.

RELATED: Philadelphia public school parents express school reopening concerns during virtual 8-hour meeting

Ad Prima went fully virtual end of March and principals say there's been a lot of success.

"With online education our students had to develop more independent skills and computer competencies and it's really pushed us to sit there and push ourselves and our curriculum," Brown said.

And addressing some of the concerns the school says they are putting extra thought into how kids can interact with their friends...by setting up virtual extracurricular activities and lunchtime.