WILMINGTON — Brunswick County school board members are weighing the launch of the district’s own virtual academy, where the county’s students could learn completely online, or potentially in a hybrid format further down the line. Administrators hope the flexible option will entice parents to place their child in public school.
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Brunswick Virtual Academy is already offered for students to take certain courses to make up course credit or in extenuating circumstances, such as a prolonged illness.
Assistant Superintendent Jonathan Paschal presented the idea of expanding the academy to cover all courses at its Tuesday committee meetings. He said the district could benefit from serving non-traditional learning in-house instead of losing students to other virtual academies or homeschooling programs.
Paschal added school districts typically see between 8% to 12% of their county’s students opt for homeschooling; Brunswick County is at 10%, resulting in around 1,750 students learning at home.
“There are homeschool students and families that are having to really work for their content and curriculum, and we could provide it in a very nice package for them,” Paschal said at the meeting.
He also noted BCS sports and extracurricular participation would be on the table, while virtual students would be entitled to district support services from Chromebooks to Individualized Education Programs for students with disabilities.
There’s also the potential the virtual academy could draw Brunswick County students attending charter or private schools back into the fold. By doing so, it would also mean more money coming back into the district; state and local funding streams are dictated on a per-pupil basis.
Additionally, Brunswick County Schools currently pays for students to attend other virtual academies — including the North Carolina Virtual Academy and North Carolina Cyber Academy.
Some students take a few courses not offered in their local school, like some Advanced Placement classes, through these entities; for students who take all online classes, the costs can rack up.
Paschal said the district is currently paying around $500,000 to other academies. Under Brunswick Virtual Academy, the district would be able to cut its per-pupil operation costs for the academy by half.
In revenue, the district would bring in a net of $336,875 if it enrolled only 87 students. On the higher end, if it served 525 students, or 30% of the estimated homeschooled students in the county, the revenue could be over $2 million.
Paschal said some of this money would be used to hire positions to run the academy; one would be needed for the initial rollout.
PCD asked Paschal after the meeting if the academy would be open to students outside of Brunswick County. In an email to PCD, he said the district is “not prepared to discuss or open enrollment to students from outside the county at this stage of planning.”
The implementation would be in phases and could start as early as fall 2026. The initial cohort could accommodate up to 150 students, with the district utilizing teachers through the virtual software company Edmentum, which currently runs the Brunswick Virtual Academy. A coordinator would be hired to oversee the academy; if more than 100 students were enrolled, the state would pay for this position.
Paschal recommended the academy only be open to non-BCS students in the pilot year. Though, another option would be to allow currently enrolled students to transition to the academy under the condition they try traditional school for at least one semester.
In either phase two or three of the academy, the district could explore hybrid options for students that want to take some classes online and some in person. Board member Steven Barger expressed hesitation on directing students looking to get out of school early to the academy instead of the district’s successful CTE courses, though Paschal said the hybrid could work as an online class with an in-person lab twice a week.
The employee needs would also shift with the phases. Between 150 and 300 students would require a data manager, student support specialist and counselor, while 401 or more students would need an additional support specialist.
“I’m all in as far as supporting it, I think we need a little bit more market research,” Barger said.
Board chair Steve Gainey agreed with Barger, requesting staff provide data on how other districts with their own academy operated their program and enrollment trends. Paschal said he would bring that information to the next meeting.
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