Bentonville board votes to expand virtual education

BENTONVILLE — The School Board approved a program Monday to provide students in grades five through 12 the option of getting all of their schooling online.

The 100% online program represents a major expansion of the School District’s digital learning initiative piloted at the high school level starting in January 2018. It will be available starting this fall.

Jennifer Morrow, the district’s director of secondary education, said the community has expressed a desire for the online education model. Other local districts have expanded their online offerings or are planning to do so.

Bentonville has seen its number of high school online course requests nearly triple in the past year, from 467 in May 2018 to 1,386 this month, according to district officials.

“We’re ready not just to begin that growth, but we’re ready to embrace it based on the lessons we’ve learned this year,” said Joshua Vest, a Bentonville High School English teacher who has taught virtual classes this school year.

Taylor Bowers, another teacher involved in the pilot online program, said feedback from students has been positive.

“When we ask them what can we do to improve these online classes, the overwhelming response is, we want more of them,” Bowers said.

The district has built a successful online model and is comfortable with expanding, Morrow said. In addition, a new state law taking effect this summer requires school districts to offer expelled students digital learning courses or alternative educational services.

“We’ve been doing a little bit of that in one-offs in lieu of expulsion, but we need a comprehensive system for that,” Morrow said.

Students enrolled in the fully online program will take six courses at a time in grades nine through 12 and five courses at a time in grades five through eight. All courses will be taught by Bentonville school teachers.

Students will pay $25 per course per semester to participate in the online school, which amounts to $300 per year at the high school level.

The district will receive a set amount of state money for each student enrolled in the online school, just as it does for all other students.

Bentonville is the latest Northwest Arkansas district

to invest more in online education.

Fayetteville opened its Virtual Academy as a charter school in 2016 and has marketed the option to families across the region. The Rogers School District decided earlier this year to move ahead with an online program for its students

in grades six through 12.

In other business at Monday’s board meeting, the board unanimously approved raises for staff effective next school year. The district is granting an increase of 1 percent across all salary schedules that will cost about $1.3 million, according to finance director Janet Schwanhausser.

The 1 percent raise, when combined with the automatic annual “step” increases

included in salary schedules, adds up to a total raise of 2.3 percent next year compared to this year for most licensed and classified staff members.

The raise was included on the district’s long-range financial plan, Schwanhausser said. The board last granted raises for the 2017-18 school year.