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District administrators weigh switching online vendor for Personalized Learning Plans
Summary
At an April 15 committee meeting, Northland Pines administrators outlined plans to shift the district’s Personalized Learning Plan (PLP) online coursework from PEAK/K12 to WBS, citing lower per-course costs, live instruction and improved IEP accommodations as reasons to consider the change.
Northland Pines School District administrators told the Education Activities Committee on April 15 they are considering switching the district’s Personalized Learning Plan online vendor from PEAK/K12 to a Wisconsin-based provider identified in the transcript as WBS.
Chair opened the PLP discussion by defining a PLP as a team-created combination of in-person classes and online coursework developed with administrators, parents and guidance counselors. Chair said the district has used PEAK/K12 for online curriculum but has explored WBS and “found that the course prices dropped down to $290 per course through WBS,” and that the per-course price could drop further if a district teacher is listed as the course instructor.
A staff member and other committee members described features that drew the district’s interest in WBS: a live-instruction option for elementary–middle students and explicit documentation of Individualized Education Program (IEP) accommodations in online classes. Chair said, “If a student has an IEP and they get extended time for tests or assignments or things like that, WBS is actually gonna enter those into the class so that the student gets the same accommodations they would have in their IEP through us,” which district staff framed as an improvement over prior vendor practice.
Committee members noted trade-offs: PEAK offered a very broad elective catalog (examples cited in committee comments included specialized electives such as poultry management) that some families value, and staff warned that some PEAK courses have stopped running. The district said WBS’s live instruction could address concerns about very large asynchronous classes—“some of the teachers mentioned that there’s, like, 500 kids in an individual class,” a speaker said—while reducing per-course costs. Chair provided a concrete example: assigning a local teacher to a WBS section could lower the district’s per-course cost to roughly $145.
District staff emphasized guardrails and enrollment controls for PLPs, saying they are using criteria (grades, standing, counselor involvement) to ensure PLP is chosen because it fits a student’s needs rather than to avoid school challenges. Committee members also discussed outreach: staff plan to increase advertising of PLP options after noting enrollment losses to outside providers.
The committee did not take a formal vote on vendor selection during the meeting; staff said they will continue analysis and bring more data to a future meeting.
The committee meeting closed the PLP discussion by agreeing to review additional data and cost comparisons at a subsequent meeting.
