TSC ready to open third high school, Tippecanoe Online Academy

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TSC READY TO OPEN THIRD HIGH SCHOOL, TIPPECANOE ONLINE ACADEMY

Final days of registration are closing in for Tippecanoe School Corp.’s third high school, an online option in the works since September 2023.

Tippecanoe Online Academy will include curriculum help from Arizona State University Prep Digital and courses led by TSC teachers. Classes start Aug. 13, with a schedule that will follow TSC’s schedule, only taught virtually.

“I really feel like we're creating something from scratch,” Devin Arms, TSC director of technology innovation, said this week.

The TSC school board approved Tippecanoe Online Academy in fall 2023, not as an alternate high school for discipline problems, students who have fallen behind academically or for credit recovery, but for those looking for flexible scheduling, who might have social anxiety in traditional school settings or for families homeschooling now.

This is from a conversation with Arms Monday, as prep work on the new school entered its final two weeks.

Question: Let’s talk about the TSC Online Academy. Are you in crunch time right now?

Devin Arms: Yes, we are in the full swing of things. It seems like each day it's getting a little bit busier, which I'm sure you can imagine. We actually just wrapped up our afternoon teacher orientation session today. We had one in the morning and then one this afternoon where we met with all of the teachers who will be leading classes at the Online Academy and going through some school-specific type information with them ahead of the upcoming school year. We're still enrolling students. It seems like this time of year is when many families are looking ahead to the next school year and what the plan is for their child. We have seen a little influx in enrollments over the last week or so. So we're looking to round out that process here in the next couple of weeks and get locked in for the school year.

Question: How many students do you have enrolled right now?

Devin Arms: Currently, we are sitting right about 65 full-time students.

Question: Do you have another set of part-time students?

Devin Arms: In terms of part-time students, when we launched information about our plans several months ago, that was also part of the conversation. This is going to be beneficial for Harrison or McCutcheon students who maybe want to take more online courses. For the upcoming school year, we are only offering a very limited number of our online courses to our Harrison and McCutcheon students. We have always offered a virtual or an online option for government, economics and U.S. history at our traditional high schools, which started years ago. With the advent of our online academy, those three courses are being brought under the umbrella of the online program, and those will still then be available for Harrison and McCutcheon students to enroll in. If you add those students, I think there are a couple of hundred Harrison and McCutcheon students across those three classes who will have that exposure to the online school for the upcoming school year.

Question: How many of the 65 full-time students are current TSC students versus bringing students in from outside districts?

Devin Arms: I'd say about 60% of our full-time online academy students are coming from either McCutcheon, Harrison or one of our middle schools as an incoming freshman student.

Devin Arms (Photo: Dave Bangert)

Question: What are you hearing in terms of why students and families are going with the Online Academy?