Belleville private school pivots to online classes for most grades. Here’s why
A recently-established day care/pre-K through 12th grade Christian school in Belleville has shifted to online instruction for most grades.
Belleville Christian School — which occupies the former Belle Valley School South building at 1901 Mascoutah Ave. — had to temporarily move to an online curriculum for its 11 elementary, middle and high school students due to financial difficulties, according to Founder and Chairman Rev. John Yu. He said the decision was communicated by the principal sometime this week or last.
Yu said 10 students decided to leave the school and one 11th grade student has stayed for the virtual instruction. The 21 pre-K and kindergarten students remain in-person.
The school made the decision to go online only because it didn’t have enough students, and therefore enough tuition to pay salaries for the number of subject teachers needed for in-person classes, Yu said. With the online program, only one or two teachers are needed because students study by themselves and then go to the teacher when they have questions.
Tuition at Belleville Christian School is $400 per month, totaling $3,200 for the school year, but many students receive scholarships, Yu said.
Belleville Christian School is owned by Korea International Christian School English Corp., which operates the original Korea International Christian School in South Korea. Yu is the organization’s president.
The organization bought the vacant Belle Valley facility in 2018 and renovated it to open for the 2020-21 school year, just before the Covid-19 pandemic hit. The goals were to serve the community, raise Christian leaders and facilitate student exchanges between the United States and Asia, according to previous Belleville News-Democrat reporting.
Yu said he thought a lot of students would come to the school when it opened, but only a few students came.
Now, he said the school aims to get the elementary, middle or high school instruction back in-person by bringing students from South Korea over to the Belleville facility.
This story was originally published October 12, 2023 at 3:18 PM.
