School Districts Offer Online Learning

WAITSBURG - Last week, the Waitsburg School Board voted unanimously to approve a new alternative learning program that will allow students to complete their education from the comfort of their home computers.

Waitsburg Superintendent Dr. Carol Clarke said offering online learning is beneficial in two ways. One is to provide students who have dropped out of school an opportunity to continue their education, she said. The other is to provide families who home school their children another curriculum option.

"It's one way to draw back students who dropped out or were not currently enrolled in school," Clarke said.

The Prescott School District offers online learning through the Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction and Apex Learning. The Dayton School District has offered online learning similar to Waitsburg's program since the beginning of the school year.

She said she knows attending school in the "brick and mortar" buildings is harder for some students and she wanted to provide a way for them to complete their schooling.

Also, parents who choose to have their children home schooled for various reasons may be interested in going through the district to provide materials and support.

Last year, Clarke was part of a travelling team that went to the East Coast to research an alternative online learning program for the local educational service district. The team was looking for a program that could compete with the current commercial online programs currently available.

With the educational service district in charge of online learning, the school district won't need to deal with individual commercial vendors, Clarke said. The service district will handle evaluating the curriculum and purchasing so the Waitsburg School District doesn't need to.

The district received the online learning capabilities through a membership it has with the educational service district, so families do not need to purchase the online services. With these new students enrolled in the district the extra state money allotted for the enrollment helps pay for courses, she said. There are a variety of courses now offered online at all levels. One course students are required to take is a virtual learning course to start them off on the right foot.

Clarke said one family is now using the online services. The family has two elementary school students and one middle school student. Clarke acts as the mentor of the students and the parents are the learning coaches, she said.

Clarke said she is happy to provide more choices for parents who home school their children and to make sure students who have trouble learning in a traditional school environment still have the opportunity to graduate.