Pennsylvania Online High Schools

By the middle of last year, Cole knew something had to change. He wanted to be able to practice with his band Time Out, so he asked his parents if he could enroll in a cyber school. The question caught his dad off-guard.

“My wife and I grew up with traditional school,” he said. “Everyone we know does that, too.”

But after several phone calls and reviewing many options, the Sipes decided to let Cole try The Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School.

Unlike thousands of York County students, Cole won’t be heading to class this week. He will be staying home to take online courses, a choice that more students are making.

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The school hopes to offer blended classes in the future, with students taking online courses both at home and in school.

With the amount of students leaving the traditional school setting to attend one of the Pennsylvania cyber schools, the district is striving to keep students registered within the district by providing the cyber education.

Since the 2001-2002 school year, cyber-school tuition costs for the district have risen over $500,000, and a solution to those numbers is to offer something similar within district itself.

“I was a little nervous at first,” instructor John Sharp said of the online courses held at the high school. “I didn’t think that they (the students) would have enough time and I wasn’t sure if they would work in this environment, but I think that this has gone well. Extremely well.”

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MUNCY – Muncy School District has developed online courses taught by certified staff members that are much cheaper than cyber school expenses, according to school officials.

The administration recommended and the school board approved Monday night payment for a pre-approved online course.

The course costs $1,500 for one to five students and $2,400 for six to 10 students.

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Students in the Bethlehem Area School District possibly could take online classes in the future as an alternative to cyber charter schools.

The School Board Education Committee on Monday approved an administrative plan to examine whether the district should sign up for online courses offered by a consortium of three intermediate units in eastern Pennsylvania. The consortium, which began in Luzerne County and now includes Colonial Intermediate Unit 20, started the online courses as an effort to entice students — and win back state subsidies — that follow them to cyber charter schools.

“Financially it’s a good thing for our district,” acting Superintendent Thomas Persing said.

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East Penn School District officials who have long bemoaned the rising cost of students lost to cyber charter schools are making an aggressive push to win them back.

The district has joined the increasing number of schools in the region getting into the cyber charter school business in a move largely meant to save its taxpayers money

School directors voted this week to join the Lehigh Valley Cyber Consortium, a group of districts pooling resources to offer online courses through a Pittsburgh-based firm.

It’s part of the district’s summer-long campaign to market East Penn schools to both cyber charter and charter school students who cost the district roughly $2.5 million this past school year, according to Superintendent Thomas Seidenberger.

“We’re not strong-arming,” Seidenberger said. “We’re just trying to give parents a choice. We’ve been screaming about the high cost of cyber schools. This is a practical solution.

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