Course options now available for new provincial online school

The province recently announced the launch of a new provincial online school.

Rather than public schools running their own online schools, the province will be taking over the operation of online schools at the provincial level for public systems starting in the 2023/2024 school year.

Keith Keating, Director of Education with South East Cornerstone Public School Division, said that he believes this is a way to provide some equity across the province for all students.

"The main office will be located in Kenaston. There will be satellite offices across the province. Our current online school in Estevan will be one of those satellite offices."

Keating explained that they're looking at offering more than 180 courses in the kindergarten to grade 12 level, including about 120 high school courses with unique electives to service the needs of public school students. 

"The students will be able to take courses from a wide variety across the province from any of those satellite locations," Keating said, "as well as the Distance Learning Centre in Kenaston."

Keating mentioned that the separate school divisions, the Conseil des ecoles fransaskoises and independent schools have the opportunity to run their own online schools, as some currently may be doing now. "There is an accountability framework from the provincial government just to ensure they meet the same standards, as would be expected from the new provincial online school," he noted.

Right now, Keating said, they are working with the new provincial online school to ensure that students have access to the courses and options that they might need and to help transition students to the new system as seamlessly as possible.

"I know right now we have an opportunity in our school division to take online classes or Cyber Stone Virtual School, but not all school divisions have the same kind of online schooling options or opportunities."

Keating added that it's also an opportunity to learn online while still being connected to some of the other services that divisions can offer, like driver's training, extracurricular opportunities, and other supports like speech and language services. 

The course catalogue can be found at www.saskDLC.ca.