Clover Park School District online courses help military families
JOYCE CHEN; The News Tribune
Clover Park School District is contracting with Federal Way’s Internet Academy to offer an online program this fall, catering mostly to children in military families.
The program is targeted at kindergartners to eighth-graders living on Fort Lewis, who will have the option of taking courses online, with eight hours a week of required face-to-face instruction and support from a part-time teacher on post.
The district will pay $150,000 for an online curriculum.
The program will give flexibility to children of military personnel with unpredictable schedules, said Norma Melo, Fort Lewis school liaison officer.
“Our soldiers are deploying more rapidly and they’re deploying for longer periods of time, so when they get that two-week break, they want to be able to see family,” she said.
In a traditional classroom, Melo added, students would be unable to take advantage of a deployed parent’s leave time.
“Online classes allow the family to take the classroom learning with them, and start and stop when it’s needed,” she said.
Deputy Superintendent Keith Rittel said the district chose to focus on Fort Lewis and its approximately 4,600 K-8 students who live on post because those families have expressed the most desire for online learning.
“We do know from many meetings over the past couple of years with Fort Lewis representatives that there is intense interest there,” he said.
The program will also be open to the approximately 400 students living on nearby McChord Air Force Base, although the district has not actively promoted it there.
Deb Shanafelt, Clover Park director of career and technical education, said the Lakewood-based school district chose Federal Way’s Internet Academy, established in 1996, from a field of five online vendors because of its in-depth K-12 curriculum. Federal Way’s academy served about 240 students last year.
“It’s one of the oldest public online vendors,” Shanafelt said. “Their content is strongly aligned with Washington state standards, and we felt like the online courses would be a good match with our classroom curriculum.”
While the program will focus on military children, students from the alternative high school will also be able to log on for elective classes. The Alternatives-for-Individuals school will operate at a reduced level this year; the principal went from full-time to part-time, and the teaching staff shrank from nine to four.
“Essentially, the (A-I) program got cut in half,” Rittel said. “We can’t offer a full array of classes in that setting, (so) this is our method of blending the teacher-directed experience with the online experience.”
Some other Lakewood-area high school students can also enroll in the online program for credit retrieval, a shortened repeat course taken after a student has failed a class. Unlike K-8 students working from home at Fort Lewis, these older students would use a school-site computer lab room with a supervising teacher.
Clover Park just completed a pilot program with 112 high school students retaking courses online, and Shanafelt predicted 50 ninth- to 12th-graders annually will use the service for at least one course during the academic year.
Eventually, the district might expand its Web offerings to the general student population, including those who might struggle in a traditional classroom environment because of job and family commitments, medical conditions or other factors.
“The intention is to start slow and build in the second year,” Shanafalt said. “If it does well, it will be offered K-12 for any student in the Clover Park School District who wants to enroll in a virtual class.”
Other South Sound school districts with online learning programs include Bethel and Steilacoom. Bethel Online Academy started in fall 2003 as part of Challenger Secondary Schools and serves 350 students grades seven through 12. Steilacoom contracts with curriculum provider K12 to operate Washington Virtual Academies for about 2,600 kindergarten through eighth-grade students statewide.
Virtual school programs have mushroomed since the state Legislature made it more feasible for districts to offer online classes to students statewide, starting with the 2006-07 school year.
Joyce Chen: 253-597-8426
joyce.chen@thenewstribune.com
HOW TO REGISTER
Registration packets for the Clover Park Online Program are available on the district’s Web site,
www.cloverpark.k12.wa.us. They also can be picked up at the district Student Services Center, 10903 Gravelly Lake Drive S.W., Lakewood.
