New online learning opportunities are going to be available for students in the Kamloops Thompson School District, and beyond, in the not too distant future.

This is as SD73 has been successful in its bid to become a Provincial Online Learning School (POLS) for the 2023/24 school year.

Superintendent Ronda Nixon says this means SD73 will be able to offer virtual classes to not only students in the district but all students across the province, who may not have the same course options.

“So the significance of that… is we are now expanding our current enrollment and able to therefore offer, you know, those same courses we were offering to our own students, to students who would never have been able to join us in the past.”

Nixon explains SD73 is no stranger to virtual education options.

The Kamloops Thompson School District has been delivering online learning through Kamloops Open Online Learning (@KOOL) since 2006.

“Because we’ve been involved in this work for a long time, we have all the core courses and all of the electives available. We have the structure set up to even offer like speech and language therapy.”

She suggests this agreement will expand @KOOL to students outside their local school division, who may not have the same educational opportunities.

“A student might say if they’re in a smaller jurisdiction or a place that isn’t as developed, ‘well, you know what, I have so much I can take in terms of my coursework here, but I want to take the rest of SD73 because they have it already in place and in online education is working for me,'” she says.

“There are some students who simply want to take their education online or a portion of it and they can access more courses with them with a larger system.”

As of July 2023, online schools in BC will be required to hold POLS designations in order to offer online learning to students from anywhere in B.C., requiring a three-year agreement with the Minister of Education and Child Care.

SD73 said in a release @KOOL will continue to operate under the interim online learning agreement for the 2022/23 school year until July 2023 when all provincial online schools will become operational.

Back in December 2021, SD73 submitted an expression of interest to become a POLS. In June this year, Superintendent Ronda Nixon says they found they were one of 18 public school divisions accepted as a successful POLS public candidate.