Two new schools open this fall in Washington.
There are no doors, no lockers, no desks.
Students can enroll from across the state, though they may never meet their classmates face to face.
Washington Virtual Academy, which will serve kindergarten through eighth grade, and Insight School of Washington, which will serve ninth through 12th grades, are the first public online schools to claim all of Washington state as their attendance area.
Though they are run through school districts in Steilacoom and Forks, respectively, their reach is much farther.
So far, more than 600 students from across the state have signed up at each school. More than 40 Snohomish County families are among them.
The schools’ popularity out of the gate reflects the growing trend toward online learning.
More than 8,900 elementary and secondary students statewide last year were enrolled in online courses for school credit, according to surveys by the state Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction. Nearly half of school districts last year had at least one student enrolled in an online course.
But the new schools also reflect an unlikely merger of public funds with private investment.
In the case of Insight School, the Quillayute Valley School District in Forks sponsors the program but leaves the operation to a Portland, Ore.-based company called Insight Schools Inc.
Meanwhile, the school’s offices are in Bellevue, while drawing teachers as well as students from across the state.
Similarly, the Steilacoom Historical School District has partnered with Virginia-based K12 Inc. to expand its program statewide.
In both cases, private marketing companies help promote the schools.
Insight’s chief executive officer Keith Oelrich said there is widespread need for online education. But schools working within restricted budgets don’t have the financial pockets to handle the startup costs of a program that reaches beyond their doorstep.
“It’s a public-private partnership that allows them to build this school,” said Oelrich, noting he comes from a family of teachers; his father is a retired Everett band teacher.
Snohomish ninth-grader Tyler Gardner, 14, was among the first to enroll at the online school.
His mother, Laura Gardner, had home-schooled Tyler since third grade. It was what best fit the family’s busy schedule traveling across the country for Tyler’s tae kwon do competitions.
But Gardner said she was getting nervous about the prospect of teaching Tyler high school-level work.
When they heard about Insight, “I just jumped on it,” she said.
Tyler will travel in November to Cleveland for a martial arts tournament, and the family hopes to attend another in Germany early next year. Intensive training also can take him to Miami each year.
“Sometimes these tournaments are a week long. it will be nice to have something portable, convenient and flexible,” Gardner said.
Tyler is signed up for honors courses in algebra, English, world history and biology. He said he’s taken online courses before, and looks forward to it.
“I’m more of a visual learner, so I do better if I see what I’m learning instead of having something dictated to me. So it’s a lot easier for me,” he said.
Online classes appeal in particular to home-school families.
But schools also are increasingly turning to the Internet to reach out to students behind on credits, former dropouts and college-bound teens looking to beef up their class loads.
Everett School District has seen online enrollment and the number of online classes it offers grow each year.
This summer, there were 475 class spots filled online, compared to 30 just three years ago.
“Finding high-quality online classes or developing them is a trick,” said Sally Lancaster, administrator of the online program. “It can’t just be a textbook online where they read the text and answer questions. If kids really learned that way, we could mail textbooks home to every child. Education is more than that.”
The school district uses courses through Nebraska-based Class.com, but also has created 13 of its own courses and sold the rights to some of those to other school districts.
Are the courses a cash cow for school districts?
Educators say no.
Still, much of the latest boom in online education can be credited to new state rules that allow schools to claim per-student funding for those who learn in an online classroom as well as in a school building.
By enrolling full-time at Insight, for example, Tyler will be pumping more than $4,000 in state funding into the Quillayute district budget.
Local schools aren’t showing movement in the direction of their peers in Forks and Steilacoom, stressing the focus is on students within their own borders.
“We’re not out there marketing,” said Karen Rosencrans, coordinator of the Monroe’s Sky Valley Education Center, whose programs includes online courses.
Insight Schools Inc. will draw between 75 percent and 94 percent of the government dollars Quillayute receives for students enrolling in its online high school, depending on enrollment and other factors, said Oelrich, the chief executive.
Like Washington Virtual Academy’s K12 Inc., Insight also has plans to open similar virtual schools in other states. Washington is its first customer.
Principal Greg Rayl, who has headed schools in Yelm and Kalama, said his focus is on education, though his paycheck comes from business.
“Online is not the panacea for education. It’s not designed to supplant the regular school,” Rayl added. “Our main focus here is to provide the best education we can to students who find our style of school best to their learning.”
Reporter Melissa Slager: 425-339-3465 or mslager@ heraldnet.com.
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