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Private Businesses Could Host Some Alberta Students' Remote Learning This Year

The inside of the Injanation facility in Calgary.
The inside of the Injanation facility in Calgary.

There are unconventional learning environments, and then there’s going to school at a trampoline park.

The latter might be the reality for some Alberta students, as private recreational facilities are stepping forward to offer learning environments for a fee to parents uncomfortable sending their kids back to school under the province’s current plan.

Facilities such as trampoline parks, cheerleading academies and dance studios are offering “summer camp”-style remote learning spaces for the new school year. Through the programs, students can engage in their existing school board’s distance learning programs under a structured schedule with adult supervision — for a cost ranging north of $1,000 per student each month.

WATCH: Feds issue guidelines on reopening schools. Story continues below.

The proposed private programs follow weeks of backlash against the province’s back-to-school plan, which will see the majority of students back in physical classrooms full time, with no changes to class sizes.

Rachael McIntosh, the marketing coordinator for Calgary indoor trampoline park Injanation, says the business is targeting its proposed program at parents not comfortable sending their kids back to school but who can’t stay home to supervise remote learning.

“We just saw that need for parents in a few different situations where they might need someone to basically play that parent role and oversee their children’s online studies, if that’s the option that they choose instead of going back to school,” she told HuffPost Canada.

Inside the Injanation facility in Calgary.
Inside the Injanation facility in Calgary.

Injanation has proposed a “summer camp”-style program where kids will be grouped into cohorts of nine and cycled through supervised time with their remote learning as well as physical activity in the trampoline park. The program is expected to cost parents between $1,000 and $1,200 per student each month.

McIntosh said the facility’s party rooms can be converted into classrooms, and they can host upwards of nine or 10...

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