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Author: Jason Neiffer

August 2022 Update for Montana School Administrators

Three Important Messages from Montana Digital Academy

Good day from the Montana Digital Academy headquarters at the University of Montana in Missoula!  On behalf of our faculty and staff, welcome back to school!  I hope you had an opportunity to step away from the office this summer.

MTDA staff is hard at work preparing for the upcoming school year and look forward to working with you and your students and staff.  MTDA has several new programs and opportunities for students that we’ll share in the coming weeks via our school administrator and facilitator announcement emails. However, I’d like to focus on three important messages for all Montana schools.

First, MTDA is ready to serve individual middle school and high school public school students in a full-time capacity for the 22-23 school year.  If you have students who need multiple enrollments to help meet their educational goals or to facilitate being remote from your school, we can serve students in up to six enrollments in the fall and spring semesters.  As in the past, multiple enrollment students will still need access to local assistance.

Second, MTDA is prepared to assist schools that need emergency services to fill in gaps created by teacher shortages.  Our staff has prepared a detailed toolkit (http://mtda.link/fullprogram) with specific action steps to help manage communication and expectations based on our experience and national best practices.  Should you need assistance in this way, please contact MTDA’s support desk (support@mtda.org) to schedule a consultation call as soon as you suspect you might need assistance.

Third, MTDA’s award-winning EdReady Montana program remains a robust option for schools looking to adopt tools that drive placement, personalization, and competency assessment in mathematics and English.  EdReady remains free due to generous support from the Dennis and Phyllis Washington Foundation.  Contact the help desk (support@mtda.org) to set up a consultation call or professional development to implement EdReady today!

MTDA staff is at your service to assist with implementing our services and consult on distance learning theory or best practices.  Contact us today!

Best wishes for a great school year!

Jason Neiffer, Ed.D.
Executive Director
Montana Digital Academy
jason@mtda.org
406-203-1812

12/2/2020: Open Enrollment Pending

Good afternoon from MTDA offices in Missoula!

MTDA enrollment is open; however, there are certain instances in GeniusSIS where a student is limited from enrolling without cause.  We are working on resolving the issue.

In the meantime, please review our released briefing documents regarding the Spring 2021 program.

11/23/2020: Spring 2021 Enrollment Announcements Coming Next Week

Good day from MTDA offices at the University of Montana in Missoula.

MTDA continues to work on Spring 2021 planning finances and logistics and is preparing to open enrollment on or before Wednesday, December 2, 2020.  We will send out an email over our site facilitator announcement list when ready.

We do ask any school that plans to utilize MTDA’s program in a different manner (more enrollments, less enrollments, change in local enrollment philosophy) than Fall 2020 to drop a quick like to the support desk (support [at] montanadigitalacademy.org) and let us know.  If need be, we would appreciate the ability to connect on a brief conference or consultation call.

In the meantime, if you have questions, please reach out to us via the support desk!

06/30/2020: MTDA Independence Day Schedule

Fireworks

Hello from MTDA central offices in Missoula!

Per our academic calendars, MTDA academic programs will be closed on Friday, July 3, 2020, and Monday, July 6, 2020, for the Independence Day weekend.

For our original credit programs, this means that teachers might not be reachable via email or other means.  Online classrooms will remain open.

For our credit recovery programs, there will be no live grading service either Friday, July 3, or Monday, July 6.

Our help desk services will be lightly monitored for emergencies throughout the weekend, and our office staff will be available for service on Monday, July 6, 2020.

Have a great Independence Day weekend!

01/21/2020: Enrollment is Open Through 1/24

The Spring 2020 High School Original Credit initial course request deadline has passed and we have sectioned off courses and assigned teachers. Enrollment remains open for Spring 2020 with remaining course capacity. The majority of our courses have additional capacity for enrollment. You can see an always-updated list of available courses by clicking on our live course availability list: here.

For the handful of courses that have hit capacity, that course will no longer appear for enrollment in GeniusSIS. We don’t have a means of keeping a waitlist, however, we will process any drop we receive at 9:59 am each weekday so that you can check for open slots at 10:00 am each morning, first come, first served.

Please don’t hesitate to contact our staff if you have any questions!

Enrollment will remain open for high school original credit classes until Friday, January 24, 2020, with the exception of classes that fill. At this point, we have room in the vast majority of courses, however, we strongly advise that you enroll before classes start on Tuesday, if possible, for the best likelihood of a good student outcome.

New Edmentum/Connect CR Interface for Students

Attention all Connect CR students and site facilitators:

Over the weekend, the system that hosts our Connect Credit Recovery system was updated.  The student interface is new and should, over time, prove a more obvious way to click through the curriculum.

Here is a quick graphic that shows you where various pieces of your class are located:

NewEdmentum

The courses otherwise work the same as last week.  If you have any questions or run into problems or errors, please contact the support desk, support (at) montanadigitalacademy.org.

High School Original Credit: Drop Deadline

Attention high school original credit session 2 students:

Today, Tuesday, July 22, 2014, is the deadline for dropping session 2 courses.  Please contact our support desk, support (at) montanadigitalacademy.org to initiate a support.

Courses dropped after today will result in a WF/F report back to your local school for reporting on your report card.

If you have any questions, please contact Jason, jason.neiffer (at) montanadigitalacademy.org or 406-203-1812.

MTDA closed for Independence Day

As previously announced, MTDA offices will be closed on July 3rd-6th for Independence Day.  During that time, virtual classrooms will remain open, however, there will only be limited staffing of our phone lines and help desk.  During that time, our teaching staff will not be monitoring emails.
 
For more information contact Jason Neiffer, Montana Digital Academy, 406-203-1812 x102, jason.neiffer@montanadigitalacademy.org.
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