IVSA Newsletter

As February settles in, many of us feel like we’ve been living our own version of the Winter Olympics here in Illinois - measuring snowfall totals, braving icy mornings, and seeing just how much cold we can endure. Yet while winter can feel long, this season also brings something inspiring: the excitement of watching the Winter Olympic Games and the incredible stories of athletes who have

trained for years for just one moment to shine.

Every time I watch the Olympics, I’m reminded that we rarely see the beginning of someone’s journey. We see the moment they shine - the race, the routine, the medal - but not the early mornings, the setbacks, the practice, or the years of quiet preparation.

It makes me think about our students at Illinois Virtual Schools & Academy. Somewhere in our

virtual classrooms right now may be a future Olympic figure skater, hockey player, or ski jumper.

More importantly, there are future engineers, teachers, entrepreneurs, caregivers, and leaders

logging in each day. We may not yet see the podium moments in their lives, but we are part of the

training ground - the place where discipline and resilience are built.

At IVSA, we don’t just focus on who students are today. We focus on who they are becoming.

Virtual learning gives many of our students the flexibility to pursue big dreams - to train, to travel,

to compete, to grow, while still staying connected to their education. Just like Olympic athletes,

they are balancing commitment, perseverance, and progress every day. Just like great coaches, our

teachers and mentors help students build the resilience and confidence they’ll need for whatever

stage life brings.

This winter, as you watch the Olympics or simply bundle up against the cold, I invite you to remember: the learners we support today may be preparing for something extraordinary tomorrow, and we have the privilege of helping them get there.

Melissa Lundgaard

IVSA Executive Director

Summer SPARK is a two-week virtual enrichment adventure where students explore their creativity, curiosity, and future careers through hands-on courses. From art, music, and world languages, to coding, robotics, design challenges and real-world skills like finance and entrepreneurship, learners discover new passions, while building confidence and practical skills. Only $125/course and most courses offer live instruction.

Anya is a high school junior Academy student whose local school partners with IVSA. Anya's comment about schooling with IVSA: "Being away from my team during the winter in previous years has been hard for my consistency in this sport, but with IVSA I can stay down in Wellington and keep up the hard work and pursue my passion."

The IVSA Summer Bootcamp program will leverage award winning curriculum that is designed to personalize a plan for your students to support essential skill development in math and reading. We believe that this program, along with the live sessions with our teaching staff, will be an excellent opportunity for your students to learn, grow, and have fun this summer.

IVSA Summer Bootcamp - Grades K-5th

IVSA presents SUMMER SPARK. Summer SPARK is a two-week virtual enrichment adventure where students explore their creativity, curiosity, and future careers through hands-on courses. From art, music, and world languages, to coding, robotics, design challenges and real-world skills like finance and entrepreneurship, learners discover new passions, while building confidence and practical skills.

IVSA Summer SPARK - Grades 3rd-12th

Summer SPARK Course Descriptions

IVSA offers over 300 courses in our Summer School Program. Do you need Consumer Economics, Driver's Ed, Health, PE, World Languages or an Elective? What about taking Photography, Geometry, Digital Media, Forensics, or get credit for working this summer with our Workplace Experience course.

IVSA Summer School - Grades 6-12th

WHEN: Monday and Thursdays, 6:30-7:30pm

WHERE: Students will meet with Mr. Krepel in Zoom. Click here for link: IVSA Spanish Learning Lab

WHAT: If your student is currently enrolled in a Spanish course, the Learning Lab offers:

• 🎯 Extra practice and support from IVSA’s Spanish instructors
• 💬 Conversation to assist in their coursework
• 🌟 Assistance on topics that students may not fully understand

This February, celebrate Valentine’s Day with classroom-ready Desmos digital valentines from Mathogram. These playful, student-friendly activities use graphing, transformations, and creativity to help learners practice key algebra and graphing skills while making and sending sweet, mathy messages. They are the perfect bell-ringer for your math lesson this month!

Have students go to https://www.mathogram.com/ and choose one of the 6 designs.

They can then type their message on the top left of the graph.

Have students explore the equations listed in the “behind the scenes section” and reflect on the types of functions, domains, ranges, shifts, scaling and reflections.

Have students screenshot or export their valentines and post them in a class gallery or send to a peer, teacher or parent with a math note.

Beginning Summer 2026:

High School Special Education or History/Sociology Dual Credit Teacher

High School Science Dual Credit Teacher

High School Film/Media Dual Credit Teacher

High School Driver's Education Teacher

We are excited to invite Tier 1 and Tier 2 High Schools to participate in a new dual credit program — a collaboration between Illinois Virtual Schools and Academy (IVSA) and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. The university’s Dual Credit Learning Accelerator is partnering with IVSA to pilot four Illinois Dual Credit courses during the 2026–2027 and 2027–2028 school years to qualifying schools.

Through this initiative, students can earn both high school and college credit simultaneously.

The pilot includes four popular 100-level general education courses from the University of Illinois:

● ASTR 150: Killer Skies: Astro Disasters

● SPED 117: The Culture of Disability

● MACS 100: Introduction to Popular TV & Movies

You can view the full course menu with course descriptions on the Learning Accelerator website.

To express interest, please reach out to IVSA, and we will be in touch with next steps.

We look forward to working with you to expand access to high-quality dual credit opportunities!

CLICK HERE to read more about the Partnership!

Students play together weekly in practices and compete in live (online) gaming tournaments to earn points. Additional points can be earned by completing STEM curriculum modules provided by Elite Gaming Live. IVSA will offer in house prizes both weekly, and the end of season tournament provides students with the opportunity to earn cash prizes from Elite Gamine Live (one of our team members received a $500 gift card for his winning performance in the Mario Kart tournament last season).
Practice Dates: January - May
Tuesdays - 6:30pm
Thursdays - 6:30pm
Tournament Days - TBA

REGISTER HERE

• Full-Time Academy - We offer a highly supportive full-time virtual learning option for students.
• Next Chapter - Our Brand New Credit Recovery Program
• Single Course Offerings - Choose original credit or credit recovery courses in Core Subjects, Electives, World Languages, Business and CTE courses and more.
• Teacher Shortage Solutions - Are you experiencing a teacher shortage that may eliminate programs and courses. IVSA offers synchronous and asynchronous instruction options for full classes.

We have begun to partner with several schools that have a virtual block that allows students to take Credit Recovery, Core, Honors, AP, CTE, Electives, PE, or Health as needed. You provide the space, a virtual learning facilitator, and we provide the teacher, rigorous content. If you are a public school, all enrollments are eligible for reimbursement through the Illinois Virtual Course Catalog.

If you have a need for IVSA to support your school with TSS, please fill out this TSS intake form to let us IVSA know what needs you are anticipating. Filling this out does not bind you to using IVSA, but we can begin to explore this partnership.

Registration for our February and March COHORTS is OPEN! Do you have a student who would thrive with a flexible learning solution? Enroll your student today.

We have a new way that you can follow your student's IVSA course(s) by creating an observer account in our learning management system, Canvas. Please use the HELP GUIDE to walk you through this.

March 23-27: Spring Break - No LIVE sessions for Academy Students

*Teacher Shortage Solutions Schools - your teacher will connect with your VLF and leadership team to make the plan that will work best for all schools that they serve.

The mission of IVSA is to partner with local Illinois schools to provide engaging and supportive online educational experiences to meet the needs of all learners.

Any Questions? Reach out to info@ivsaschool.org

Website: https://ivsaschool.org/

IVSA Phone Number: 866-890-IVSA (4872)