Western Pa.'s school districts set up own cyber academies to keep money, students in-house
The Hempfield Area School District was losing about $1.5 million to cyber charter schools each year, district officials said.
That's about 2 percent of the district's yearly budget — money that could be used for capital improvements such as roof replacement or to help offset rising pension and retirement costs, business manager Wayne Wismar said.
Instead of paying for students to be educated elsewhere, Westmoreland County's largest school district had to find a way to meet the demand for online education. Four years ago, Hempfield Area opened its own cyber academy. This year, 99 students in grades six through 12 are enrolled.
They're not the only district looking for a way to keep students and money in-house. District-based cyber academies have popped up across Allegheny and Westmoreland counties as traditional public schools compete with both cyber charters and their brick-and-mortar counterparts.
It appears that the Hempfield Area cyber academy has stemmed the outflow of students to cyber charters, Wismar said, though it will take time to see if the numbers improve.
During the 2014-15 school year, 183 students left Hempfield Area for cyber charter schools, district officials said. The district enrolled 5,901 students that year. Since then, enrollment has dropped to about 5,700.
About 160 to 165 students left the district for outside cyber charters in 2015-16 and 2016-17. This year, Wismar estimates that number — and the related $1.8 million cost — will hold.
Fifteen cyber charters operate in Pennsylvania. Like brick-and-mortar charter schools, cyber charters are privately managed but publicly funded: The same public dollars that fund education at a local school district pay the student's tuition at a cyber charter school. When a student leaves his home school for a charter, the charter bills the local district for the cost.
In Westmoreland County, cyber charters are one of few alternatives to traditional public schools. Other than private or parochial schools, the only brick-and-mortar charter school in the county is the Adelphoi Ketterer Charter School in Latrobe, which serves adjudicated youths.
Most of the state's cyber charters enroll students from anywhere in the state, though the grades served varies from school to school. Some have physical offices where students can go for tutoring, clubs or other activities, and some organize field trips and social gatherings.
During the 2016-17 school year, 34,224 students — about 2 percent of the state's 1.7 million public school students — attended cyber charter schools.
A statewide issue
Schools across the state are looking to meet the demand for online education options, said Jennifer Beagan, senior program director for Waterfront Learning, a program within the Allegheny Intermediate Unit that helps districts coordinate internal cyber academies or online learning programs.
“They don't have to say to a student, ‘You need to leave in order to have a different type of environment beyond our brick-and-mortar,' ” Beagan said.
Gateway is one of several Allegheny County districts to partner with the Allegheny Intermediate Unit for support in starting a cyber academy.
The Gateway School District started its cyber academy during the 2010-11 school year with 26 students. That year, 95 students left for cyber charters, costing the district about $1.05 million, or about 1.6 percent of the total budget, according to district officials.
“Basically, it was just like other districts — we were losing kids to the other cyber charter schools,” said Gateway Cyber Director Marci Klinger. She oversees the district's cyber academy, which includes monitoring students' attendance and reaching out to parents or guardians if a student's performance slips.
In 2016-17, 158 of the district's approximately 3,300 students from grades one through 12 finished the year in the cyber academy. That year, 56 students left the district for outside cyber charter schools, taking $506,715 — about 0.71 percent — of the district's budget.
“We don't really say no to students, if the parent is on board and wants them to give it a try,” Klinger said of interest in the cyber academy. She expects enrollment to exceed last year's by the end of this school year.
Like the students who attend Hempfield's cyber academy, Gateway students choose remote, online learning for a variety of reasons: medical issues, behavior or emotional needs, to care for a sick family member or to accommodate a part-time job. Some are placed in the cyber academy program if they are facing discipline issues.
While the program offers students flexibility, Klinger noted that parents or guardians must be involved in making sure students have a good learning environment at home.
No classroom vacation
Mark Gross, assistant superintendent at Hempfield Area, stressed that the cyber academy is not meant to be a vacation from the classroom.
“They're realizing that those courses are just as rigorous, if not more, and it requires a whole lot more self-discipline,” Gross said of students who struggle to manage their time and keep up with cyber classes. At Hempfield, cyber academy coursework is taught by district teachers who monitor attendance and grades, and intervene if a student falls behind.
“The parents have to be more vigilant when they have students in the cyber academy,” said Shawn Cressler, Highlands School District cyber academy coordinator, pointing out that it's harder to skip school when you're expected to catch the bus or be in a classroom. Skipping cyber courses is as simple as not logging on, he said.
Highlands started its cyber academy eight years ago; 61 of its 2,500 students in grades seven through 12 currently are enrolled, Cressler said.
Cyber charter costs account for 3 percent of the district's budget, or about $1.2 million for the 2016-17 school year. For the current school year, charter school costs so far total $958,162, according to district figures.
Other than the potential cost benefits of keeping students in the district, Cressler said that giving them the option to stay for a cyber learning experience helps to keep them part of the school community, with access to extracurricular activities, teachers and guidance counselors.
Jamie Martines is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach her at jmartines@tribweb.com, 724-850-2867 or via Twitter @Jamie_Martines.
