Clark Fork online school grows to 41 students in first year; district highlights flexibility for at‑risk learners

Clark Fork Junior-Senior High staff told the Lake Pend Oreille School District Board of Trustees on April 8 that a new online program launched this school year has grown from five students to 41 and is designed to offer flexible pacing and year‑round enrollment.

The online program serves students in grades 7–12, allows students to take four courses at a time and to choose how they sequence work, and uses administrative tracking to monitor login times and course completion, program staff said.

"We started out the school year with about five kids in our program. Right now we currently have 41 total," Amanda Heilman, a Clark Fork staff member involved with the online program, told the board. She described a rolling admission model and said staff meet with every new student and parent individually to assess needs and set expectations. "Every student in our program is there for a different reason. There is no two of them that are the same," Heilman said.

Heilman said students pick how to structure their coursework — for example doing English on a given day or working through an entire course until it is complete — and that the program uses an admin dashboard to track activity. The district has hired a new employee, Justin Allen, to support family contacts and monitor student engagement; Heilman said Allen had been on the job about a week.

Students and parents described how the program helped keep learners connected to school. In a video introduced by staff, 16‑year‑old student Buddy Adams said the online program let him finish work while spending a month in Hawaii and that he was completing courses fast enough to "graduate as a sophomore this year." Parent Crystal (last name not specified in the record) said the program allowed her older daughter to work ahead while caring for family members; another student, Jaya Rosemont, said online pacing reduced stress when her daughter was hospitalized in a neonatal intensive care unit.

Board members praised the program's ability to retain students who might otherwise leave school and asked how families enroll. Staff said most enrollments begin with a phone call and an in‑person meeting so parents and students can see the Clark Fork facility and understand program expectations. Staff emphasized the importance of that meeting to avoid students "falling through the cracks." "It's really important that they come and actually meet us because then they know who we are, what we're going to expect...because it'd be really easy to fall through the cracks," Heilman said.

The presentation closed with board members urging program growth and staff training ahead of next year; Heilman said the district hopes to expand the program and to continue monitoring outcomes and enrollment.

Several students and the parent speakers cited specific successes and said the program offered a path to graduation for students with family or work obligations or those who prefer nontraditional pacing. The board recorded no formal action on the presentation; the item was informational only.