BUTLER TWP — The Butler and South Butler school districts have formed a cyberschool to expand online course offerings to secondary school students, grades seven to 12. They hope other school districts will join them.

The Southwestern Pennsylvania Virtual Academy Consortium will offer 106 courses and save both districts the tuition money that otherwise would follow students to the cyberschools of their choice.

The online courses will use the same texts, follow the same sequence and have the same scope as those classes in the junior, middle and high schools.

In Butler, the cyberacademy is aimed at students who are unable to attend regular classes because of medical or personal issues. While some students will work from home, others will take online courses in school, with instructors both online and in class.

In South Butler, students are restricted only by the 50 licenses the district purchased. The first 50 students who register for the classes will be eligible to take one or more courses online.

Both districts permit cyberacademy students to participate in extracurricular activities and to graduate with the district’s degree.

The districts contracted with Pittsburgh-based VLN Partners, a firm that develops online academies for school districts nationwide and provides online teachers to interact with the students. They will pay VLN $4,000 per student for the instruction.

Students will have access to courses from both districts as well as new special education, honors and advanced placement courses, including more electives. The courses were developed both by the districts and by VLN.

VLN gives each student a laptop computer, a scanner-printer, and a headset with a microphone to allow them to interact online. Each family must provide a high-speed Internet connection for their student.

The South Butler School Board already approved that district’s participation in the consortium, and the Butler School Board is expected to approve the district’s involvement at its June 27 meeting at the intermediate high school auditorium.

In 2010-11, the Butler School District had 177 students attend cyberschools outside the district, costing more than $1 million, said Jerry Slamecka, assistant superintendent of technology.

Another 23 students attended Butler’s virtual academy, which was in its first year. Forty students are signed up to attend in 2011-12.

“Our goal for that first year was getting those basic academic courses online,” Slamecka said, adding that he hopes some of those students will return to regular classrooms.

“The bigger interest of the board is that Butler kids get a Butler education,” Slamecka said.

Also in 2010-11, the South Butler School District spent $600,000 for 70 students to attend cyberschools of their choice, Mike Leitera, assistant superintendent, said. Another 12 to 13 students attended the district’s own cyberschool, which was in its first year, he said.

He believes 40 to 50 students will attend online classes this fall.

It’s unusual for the districts to have differences between their core courses, Leitera said.

The Butler School District paid VLN $30,000 to begin the program, including course development and online teacher services.

South Butler paid $16,500 in startups costs, the same amount as the annual maintenance fee each district will pay.

“We already recovered our investment with the students we enrolled this (2010-11) year,” Slamecka said.

All school districts received 30 percent tuition reimbursement from the state in 2010-11 for tuition those districts paid for their cyberschool students. Reimbursement is eliminated under the proposed 2011-12 state budget.