School board mulls online classes

Jim Walker

Page Unified School District has recently made a move to bring students into the modern world of online education via a proposed partnership with Scottsdale Online Learning.

According to superintendent Jim Walker the addition of the online program would increase the number and variety of elective courses offered to students as well as providing the opportunity for missed credits in core areas to be made up.

“The state has increased graduation requirements and some students are required to take additional courses in preparation of the AIMS test; this limits opportunities in a student’s schedule to take elective and CTE courses. Students can take online courses to create availability in their schedule for these electives,” Walker said.

The online courses would include 14 different advanced placement courses, nine of which the district doesn’t currently have the means to offer and will also have the option for students to enroll in dual-credit courses from Scottsdale Community College to help them be prepared for life after high school, said Page High principal Paul Gagnon.

“This program extends to our students the opportunity to take courses we don’t have the faculty to teach such as Latin, Mandarin Chinese, marine studies and psychology,” added Gagnon.

Members of the district’s site council spent several months researching three different online learning options for the district including Chandler and Mesa, but eventually decided on Scottsdale because of the rigorous level of instruction the program provides as well as the dedication to student support offered, said Gagnon.

“Online learning is really taking of and we want to be sure that our students are able to take classes that involve the type of rigor receiving a PHS degree requires,” said Gagnon.

To ensure that the program is effective, each course has a protocol to follow including online discussion session, conference calls and/or video chat that students are required to participate in and tests would have to be taken in person, in an environment overseen by a certified teacher, added Gagnon.

“Hopefully this provides an option where students use our online program instead of many other providers serving the state. We believe that Scottsdale on-line had more accountability built into its product than many other options students are currently using,” added Walker.

Gagnon went on to say that Scottsdale has been working closely with PUSD in training the staff involved, “We will be prepared to meet the difficulty of these courses, the staffing is in place and adequate to facilitate what we have anticipated so far.”

The partnership is only the beginning, said Gagnon, “We hope to become a beacon for online education in northern Arizona, and there is a master plan for us to eventually develop our own online learning program.”

­­The plan was presented to the board for approval at the July 10 meeting where all members present approved it, except Sandra Kidman, who stated she would need further clarification on specific points of the program before she could decide.

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