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Superintendent proposes district-run K–12 online program to retain students
Summary
Superintendent Gross outlined plans for a Grand Rapids Area Schools-run online program delivered with a private provider to offer K–12 synchronous and asynchronous options, with a goal of bringing back an estimated 65–75 students and creating a district online school site.
Superintendent Gross briefed the board on plans to establish a district-run K–12 online program, saying the objective is to retain and return students currently enrolled elsewhere in online or homeschool programs while maintaining a focus on face-to-face learning.
Gross said roughly 430 students in the region currently enroll in online or homeschool programs and that the district conservatively expects to return about 65–75 students (roughly 5–6 per grade) if a district option is available. The proposed model would offer full-time online elementary enrollment and full- or part-time secondary enrollment; the courses would be delivered asynchronously with licensed Minnesota teachers and an emphasis on state standards.
Gross said the district is pursuing a partnership with a provider (named in the meeting as Imagine/Edgenuity) so the program can scale up or down from day one. He described the partner model as enabling district control over standards and the ability for district teachers to assume instruction as enrollment grows. The plan calls for creating an official school site number for the online program by summer; students enrolled in the district online site would be Grand Rapids students, eligible for district activities and graduation from their affiliated in-district high school.
Board questions included athletics and course access, including International Baccalaureate (IB). Gross responded that district-enrolled online students would retain access to extracurriculars and that, as one trustee noted, IB coursework typically requires face-to-face instruction and therefore may not be available through an online model. Board members also discussed credit recovery, summer options, and coordination with existing offerings such as Infinity Online.
Policy and next steps: Gross said the district has drafted an updated online-learning policy consistent with Minnesota’s Online Learning Act and the REED Act and would return on March 24 with a formal agenda item to establish the online school site and an agreement with the provider. He named two assistant principals to serve as site points of contact and described planned outreach to families, including open houses and informational events.
Why it matters: District enrollment drives state funding; returning even a modest number of students could affect budget projections and expand access for families whose needs are not met by current in-person or third-party online options. Gross said the program aims to preserve connections between families and the district and to provide supports and supervised teacher contact, which he argued differentiate a district program from some other online providers.
