Marana Unified School District's new K-6 distance learning program is the only one of its kind being offered by traditional public schools in Southern Arizona, but it has yet to attract students.
Timing may explain the lack of enrollment. School started Aug. 13, but the K-6 program didn't receive Governing Board approval until Aug. 23.
Still, the school has high hopes for the K-6 program.
"We are excited," said James Butler, the district's director of community schools and distance learning. "We are open for business."
A seventh- through 12th-grade program began four years ago and this year has more than 60 students enrolled, Butler said.
The district's distance learning program gives families the option of enrolling their children in online courses they complete from home. Other than a deposit for books, there is no cost, although most of the program is Web-based and families must have computer and Internet access.
People are also reading…
"There is some traditional instruction with books, workbooks and manipulatives," Butler said. "It's not sitting a kindergartner in front of a computer for five hours a day."
Teachers are available to help students via e-mail, but parents are the primary teachers.
Teachers verify that students are meeting the prescribed benchmarks indicated by the curriculum, Butler said.
An intergovernmental agreement with Mesa Public Schools allows Marana to use Mesa's teachers. Mesa's K-6 program is in its fourth year and has about 160 students registered, said Kathy Tolar, director of Mesa's Eagleridge Enrichment Program, which facilitates the K-6 program.
Butler said Marana's affiliation with Mesa's program adds credibility to its own program.
"We know the program, and they are going to have a lot of questions," Tolar said about Marana. "It's a big, complex program."
Kindergarten through sixth-grade course work is done through CompassLearning's Odyssey software, which is aligned with state and national standards.
Older students take online semester courses taught by certified teachers.
All students are required to take state assessments.
When Butler presented the new K-6 program to Marana's Governing Board, he stressed that the best place for a student to learn is in a classroom interacting with a teacher. But families have a variety of needs, and Marana should provide the option to school children at home, Butler said.
Dana Yentzer home-schooled his sons, Zach and Jordan, from the time they started school. "We decided we wanted to grow up with our children," he said.
He and his family moved to Tucson from Pennsylvania five years ago and used a distance education program out of Texas Tech University.
They made the switch to Marana's program when his younger son, Jordan, was in the eighth grade. He is now a freshman.
"The Texas Tech extension program was not through the Internet," Yentzer said about the program that mailed assignments to students. "My son functions very well on the computer. The Marana program lent itself to his learning process."
Both boys are now enrolled in Mountain View High School, but Yentzer was impressed with Marana's operation.
"I looked at a lot of distance education programs around the country," Yentzer said. "What I liked most about Marana is they use real-time teachers. If we had an issue or problem, I wouldn't lose a chunk of time."
Jill Waffler said the program has been a blessing to her family. Before enrolling her son, Tyler Bouchard, in the eighth grade, she worried that he would drop out of school.
Tyler, who is now in the 10th grade, didn't like the pace of traditional schools.
"He just didn't like regular school," Waffler said. "He didn't like the delay in learning. It's wonderful of him to have found this method of learning."
Waffler's other son, Michael, attends Roadrunner Elementary School.
Attending school at home has allowed Tyler Bouchard to spend time with his twin brother, Ryan, who is severely ill and can't attend school.
"He couldn't take being away from Ryan," Waffler said. "This saved us."
Marana distance learning program
• To learn more about the K-6 or 7-12 programs, call James Butler at 352-7011.
