White Pine offering virtual school

Stacy J. Willis

Saturday, Nov. 4, 2000 | 3:51 a.m.

Wanted: students.

The public school district in White Pine County has begun advertising for high school students in Clark County.

And in Utah. And in Colorado. And in states all across the nation.

The superintendent of this tiny, impoverished district in Ely -- a place where school buildings ache with age and student enrollment numbers are dwindling -- thinks he has the answer not only to his own district's problems, but to the nation's: virtual school.

By enrolling high school students in White Pine's Internet high school, Mark Shellinger says he can alleviate his district's cash problems, bring dropouts and home-schoolers back into the system and improve the proficiency exam success rate with a higher teacher-to-student ratio.

At Nevada Virtual High, students such as Clark County resident SaraLee Anderson take self-paced, computer-driven courses for credit.

"You can call the teachers up and they can also monitor you online. And you get biweekly progress reports," Anderson, 15, said.

Virtual high school itself isn't a new idea -- 15 percent of U.S. high schools offer limited online courses, and some courses are available through private schools and universities.

But Nevada Virtual High is the first, complete (grades 9-12), district-based virtual high school in the United States -- enabling White Pine to compete for other districts' full-time students and their funding.

"We want White Pine to be the best place to go to school in Nevada -- in the country," Shellinger said of a district that in 1999 went to the Legislature for special funding to keep it afloat. "And we saw technology as a way to equalize the playing field."

However, state Department of Education officials aren't sold on Shellinger's program -- they say that the quality of education may suffer without time spent in a traditional brick-and-mortar classroom.

And, they say, the state is not prepared for the financial shifts and voucher-resembling competition for students.

"It's not a question of whether virtual high school has a place, but whether the state wants to be offering it," Doug Thunder, deputy superintendent of the Department of Education, said.

"Not everybody is going along with this. It's different, and it has some educators upset."

Shellinger started online "Nova Center" courses in his district two years ago. Last year the district began providing Nevada Virtual High School courses free to students in other Nevada counties and charging $340 per course for out-of-state students.

The idea was to allow White Pine -- whose tax base is paltry -- to collect state dollars that might otherwise go to a student's resident county.

For example, under the state's per-pupil funding formula a student who registered at a Clark County high school draws roughly $4,900 to the Clark County School District; if that student registered with Nevada Virtual High, the state would allocate $5,200 to White Pine instead.

"At the state level we're concerned about it -- we don't have a mechanism that would allow the funds to follow the kid," Thunder said.

Right now, most of the on-line school's students are home-schoolers or dropouts who are not being counted toward any district's state allocation. And in overcrowded Clark County, the threat of competition for students is negligible. But, Thunder said, other small school districts in the state could have more to lose.

Similar online high school pilot programs have been launched in Florida and Kentucky, but they are set up by the state so that the resident district would have to approve a student's choice to receive instruction online, and the state subsidizes the courses rather than shifting dollars from one district to another.

In June the state of Nevada ruled that White Pine is not allowed to collect per-pupil dollars for its students in other counties -- so Nevada Virtual High had to start charging students in other Nevada counties.

White Pine sued the state shortly thereafter and is awaiting a decision this winter. Meanwhile, the district is advertising to out-of-state students -- it added a North Carolina student to its roster of more than 50 out-of-county students last month. Nevada Virtual High has students in 7 of the state's 17 counties. In-county Nova Center has enrolled more than 100 students and given diplomas to 53.

Nevada Virtual High also stretches teacher resources -- employing fewer teachers to teach more students than traditional classrooms. The cost to educate one student through the on-line high school is roughly $3,500 -- more than $1,000 less than in a traditional school, Shellinger said.

That doesn't sit well with many teachers.

"They are looking for ways to fund their district on the backs of other districts," John Jasonek, executive director of the Clark County Education Association said. "And the truth is, I'm not convinced that students can get the same quality of education they can in a classroom."

More than 140 courses are offered, and students may work at their own pace until they test out at at least an 85 percent competency level. The program was initially funded by $3 million in private and federal grants, and some students who did not have proper computer equipment received aid through the grant money, Shellinger said.

Gary Maples, a teacher's aide in White Pine at the on-line school, said the program has pros and cons.

"Students who struggle in the classroom and need a little more time to understand a concept are better off here," he said. "And those who are quicker and get bored are also better off here."

Through long days in front of her terminal in Las Vegas, Anderson accumulated 17 1/2 of the necessary 25 high school credits within one year.

But, Maples said, "nothing will ever take the place of classroom education."

Critics worry that students lose important components of the educational process, such as classroom discussion and social interaction.

But Shellinger said none of the virtual high students has failed the proficiency exam, and the personalized computer programs address specific learning needs of each child.

Shellinger, who has toured the state giving presentations about his plan to a host of state lawmakers and Gov. Kenny Guinn, says the state will have to deal with his virtual school one way or another.

If White Pine loses its court case against the state, the district has a back-up plan: legislation has already been drafted to force the state to pay for any in-state student to enroll in Nevada Virtual High by setting it up as a state pilot program.

"If public education is going to continue, it's got to adjust," Shellinger said. "We think it would be good if there were four or five other virtual (public) high schools in Nevada.

"We're willing to compete with anybody."