James O’Hagan is not playing around. As Director of Digital and Virtual Learning for the Racine Unified School District in Wisconsin, his job entails not just managing the virtual learning program in response to the pandemic, but also supporting library services, as well as developing his passion project of esports.

In this conversation with eSchool News, James talks about the essential role esports can play when it comes to student health, mental wellness, social-emotional learning, as well as connecting to collegiate and career pathways.

Listen to his podcast, The Academy of Esports, .

eSN: So what model has your district embraced as of the first week in September?

JOH: Right now we took the approach of going remote to start the year with a re-evaluation come October. And the reason why we did is that we know that a lot of people in our community rely on daycare services. And they usually have to pay for it a month in advance. So we want to make sure that we’re giving families a heads up before changing things up.