Kenzley Sims of Riverton has a dream. The 10-year-old wants to compete at the National Junior High Finals Rodeo in barrel racing.
She loves practicing barrel racing with her mom Brenda on the family ranch and plans to compete for the Junior High Rodeo Association in the fall.
Competition is tough and, after much consideration, her parents have decided to go online with Kenzley’s education so she can focus on the sport.
“She travels with me, and we do mostly barrel racing and youth rodeos,” Brenda told Cowboy State Daily. “We'll continue that through the summer. And then, starting in the fall, we will join the association and travel to the junior high rodeos.”
Kenzley’s little brother, 9-year-old Holden, will also be going online with his education, although his focus is not so much on rodeo but on helping his dad on the ranch.
“He just wants to be a rancher,” Sims said. “He's starting to do a little bit of roping, but he doesn't compete as much as Kenzley and I do.”
The family also plans on spending the winters in Arizona. By going online with their kids’ education, they will have the freedom to follow the rodeo circuit and pursue the competitions beyond Wyoming.
Online Solution
For the past year, Sims has been the counselor for the Cowboy State Virtual Academy (CSVA) in Sheridan while living in Riverton.
Her role is to aid students with their academic planning and post-secondary planning.
After working with these online students, she decided to enroll her own kids in the program which is neither homeschool nor a private school. It is an online equivalent of attending school in Sheridan and is a fully accredited public school program.
“Students are still enrolled by statute here in Sheridan District 1 and everything we do is very much aligned with the traditional brick and mortar settings in terms of requirements,” said CSVA Director Fred Hollingshead. “Kids are working asynchronously with the teachers but don’t have to be online at a specific time with a teacher.”
This ability to complete their work on their own time is exactly what attracted parents like Sims to the school program.
She works full-time for the academy and personally didn’t have the time to homeschool her children in the traditional sense, where she would be the teacher responsible for the curriculum and creating the lessons.
“We have certified Wyoming teachers,” Hollingshead said. “Most of the teachers in our program actually work for our district already and only a handful of them only teach online for us.”
The teachers are not responsible for giving direct instruction but are available to assist through Zoom or Google Meet if a student is struggling with an assignment or needs extra support.
Most students are putting in about three hours consistently every day with their schoolwork, and Sims said that she recognizes that she will need to keep her kids on a schedule to keep up.
“At the elementary age, the parents definitely are more involved in that regard,” she said. “We probably are going to have to sit there and help a little more than the high school level.”
The Sims children attend school online, which allows for more time for their rodeo events and ranch chores. (Courtesy Brenda Sims) 
olden Sims of Riverton, 9, has begun to compete in roping events at different rodeos although his true love is helping his dad on the family ranch. He will be able to spend more time on his chores since his parents have just enrolled him in Cowboy State Virtual Academy in Sheridan. (Courtesy Brenda Sims) 
Kenzley Sims of Riverton, 10, loves barrel racing and wants to go to nationals. To help her reach that dream, her parents have enrolled her in the Cowboy State Virtual Academy in Sheridan. She will be able to do all her public-school courses on-line around her schedule. (Courtesy Brenda Sims) 
olden Sims of Riverton, 9, has begun to compete in roping events at different rodeos although his true love is helping his dad on the family ranch. He will be able to spend more time on his chores since his parents have just enrolled him in Cowboy State Virtual Academy in Sheridan. (Courtesy Brenda Sims)
Pursuing Their Dreams
When Cowboy State Virtual Academy surveys families as to why they chose CSVA over other programs, the word Hollingshead hears most is “flexibility.”
“We don't have that required face-to-face time in our program,” he said. “Our kids have the ability to log in and complete coursework from anywhere. It helps our rodeo families or hockey families that travel a lot.”
Hollingshead said that they have several rodeo families who often winter in Arizona, Texas and Oklahoma for months at a time.
They are still residents of Wyoming and just out-of-state temporarily for rodeo and this online public school allows them the opportunity to have flexible lives.
There are also situations where high school students are working full-time and are one of the earners for their family.
Logan, a senior attending CSVA, is the foreman for his dad’s construction company and is an example of a student pursuing his high school diploma while already in the workforce.
He has a 40-hour workweek and competes in football and wrestling. He completes his schoolwork over the weekend and will graduate with a diploma from Tongue River High School.
“He would just be online from whenever he got home from his athletic trip and then all day Sunday,” Sims said. “That worked for him, and I admired how driven he was.”
Another student that Sims is working with is Arrya, a freshman, who is attempting to make the Olympic team in archery.
“It’s working really well for him,” she said. “He's traveling abroad, but he's able to continue his education and work toward his competitions from anywhere in the world.”
Arrya is also taking dual credit so he will be receiving college credit for several of his classes.
“In the rodeo world, so many high school kids are going online with their education because it is so competitive,” Sims said. “In order to be at the top of that game, you need to be able to devote more than just a couple of hours after school to your sport.”
In December, Sims said the National Finals Rodeo hosts events for young competitors and there is the World Series in team roping that goes on at the same time.
“I had several different families traveling to Vegas during that time and competing in those events that were in our program,” Sims said. “It’s just awesome that you have that flexibility to pull out your computer and do your homework but be anywhere you need to be.”
Other kids, she notes, come from ranching families and have chores that always need to be done. The online classes mean that these kids can be helpful around the ranch and still get a strong education.
The Education
CSVA offers K-12 curriculum with all the core content as well as a wide variety of electives that students would find in a brick-and-mortar public school setting.
“Students can choose courses like computer science or a foreign language,” Hollingshead said. “We offer art, music and PE.”
Local Sheridan students are also encouraged to join school sports if that is something they would like to do.
“The real difference is that the student is not sitting at a desk at a certain time each day,” Sims said. “They are sitting at the computer when it works for their schedule and it's the responsibility of the kid to reach out when they need help.”
According to Hollingshead, the scholarship money that Wyoming is now offering homeschool families would not be available for students of CSVA since they are considered a public school program.
“Our state is certainly very supportive of parent choice,” he said. “We have invested a lot in providing virtual education opportunities to resident students across Wyoming.”
For Sims, she is excited to be able to get an education for her kids while on the rodeo circuit.
“Education is changing quite a bit,” she said. “Technology is changing so fast so I think it will even look way different when my kids are ready to graduate from high school than it does currently.
“We are having so many more options than just traditional public school and homeschooling.”
Jackie Dorothy can be reached at jackie@cowboystatedaily.com.
