By Emma Epperly, IdahoEdNews.org
Boundary County School District voted last week to expand the waitlist for their online school to test the waters for an expansion next year. Before approving adding more students from Lewiston/Moscow through the rest of North Idaho trustees asked for more specifics on how the program would work and current test scores.
Idaho’s northernmost school district launched an online K-8 school last fall to meet the needs of families in the area who are independent and lean toward homeschooling but want support from a teacher and the school district, Superintendent Jan Bayer said in an interview last month.
The district is one of a handful that use Overture, an Idaho-based online schooling for profit platform.
There are 100 students enrolled in the program with all but two in the Boundary County district, Bayer said.
Students in the online school can come into Boundary County schools for classes like art and music or to meet one-on-one with their teacher for instruction. Students take state tests and parents get $1,700 a year to pay for qualifying curriculum.
It’s really a great hybrid option to meet families unique needs, Bayer said.
Online schooling in Idaho has not been without controversy. In Oneida County, the Idaho Department of Education found systemic issues with special education at its statewide online school last year. The district has two Utah-based online school providers.
How it works:
Boundary County hired two teachers, Matt Dinning and Melissa Batema, for the 100 students in the program. They are overseen by Robin Merrifield, the principal at Naples Elementary School.
The school district pays its teachers and part-time administrator with part of the state funds before passing on $2,500 per student to overture, Bayer said. Overture then gives families $1,700 to purchase curriculum.
The teachers work with students online but also can teach in-person interventions.
Less than 10% of those 100 students this year were current school district students who switched to online. Most students were homeschoolers or in another online school and transferred, Bayer said.
They “like the idea that it’s local and that they actually have a teacher that they can go see if they need additional support,” Bayer said.
On Monday, the school board voted to expand the waitlist for next fall — up to 400 students. However, trustees requested more information before approving an actual expansion that would take students from Moscow/ Lewiston up to Boundary County.
Some trustees raised concerns that the district shouldn’t expand too fast and that they wouldn’t be able to offer the same level of service, with in-person options, in such a large area.
With the district’s levy and bond having failed in November, Bayer hopes that an expansion could be a safety net for staff if a second attempt to pass the levy fails in May. At least a few of the nine people Bayer expects to lay off if the levy fails could move to working for the online school, she said.
Meeting students and families where they’re at
Jen Goostrey founded Overture with her husband about seven years ago when they moved from Utah across the border to Montpelier.
Goostrey has a background in education and previously taught in public schools, but decided to stay home when she had the first of her six children.
She has homeschooled, done co-ops and even started a private school, she said. When the family moved to Montpelier, Goostrey joked, they learned it was a “bring your own job town.”
The goal of Overture is to meet families where they’re at while providing a thorough education, she said.
“It’s kind of the best of both worlds,” Goostrey said. “They’re able to kind of do a lot of what they want to do in a home learning environment.”
Overture does business with five school districts: Bear Lake School District, Snake River School District, Bonneville School District, Sugar-Salem School District, and Boundary County School District. Except for Sugar-Salem, all of the online schools are K-8. All of the districts follow a similar business structure to Boundary County.
Goostrey encourages school districts to hire teachers who live in the area. That proximity increases the ability for teachers to work together and bounce ideas off each other. Teaching online can be a big transition for educators who previously taught one grade level but now have to be experts on standards from kindergarten to eighth grade, Goostrey said.
“You’re not a glorified paper grader,” Goostrey said. “Your job is to build relationships and get to know these families and how to help them.”
Students get an individualized education plan that’s supported by their parents and teacher. Overture has live Zoom math classes four days a week along with science, writing, social studies and story times available on its platform.
If students are struggling in an area, Goostrey said they offer focused instruction, like a recent multiplication bootcamp teachers put on.
Overture has about 3,000 students statewide, Goostrey said. Since it has a small team, she hopes to only expand up to 3,500 students. The company facilitates field trips and state testing, which would be difficult if they grow too fast, Goostrey said.
Goostrey acknowledges that Overture schools aren’t the highest performing in the state, but said the data from those tests gives teachers a direction on areas students are struggling. She also noted a self-selection bias with many families choosing the online school for their children who need more one-on-one instruction. In Boundary County, 61.3% of test takers at the online school were reading at grade level this fall. That’s slightly up from the statewide numbers of nearly 60% reading at grade level.
The connection Overture students maintain with their school district makes transitioning back to a brick and mortar school easier, Goostrey said.
“It works well because they’re already familiar with that environment,” Goostrey said.
Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to correct which school districts use Overture’s services. Those districts include Snake River School District.