Four considerations to decide if your district could handle (and benefit from) virtual learning.
In Hoosiers, a tiny Indiana high school wins the state title against schools many times its size. The movie skips the scene where the school board asks how many electives it can afford.
Dr. James Whitfield, who’s in his 21st year as an educator, has lived that scene. The former basketball coach spent 17 years in Texas public schools before becoming superintendent of Treetops School International, a pre-K through twelfth grade charter near DFW Airport with about 240 students. His upper grades once offered a grand total of three electives, then the school made the tough decision to cut grades 7-12.
This fall, Treetops relaunched seventh through twelfth grade as a virtual and hybrid program, and with a host of new electives and offerings to boot.
His story makes a case every small school can use: Virtual learning, built on purpose, can give a short roster a deep bench.
Key takeaways:
- Treetops School International cut seventh through twelfth grade over a $250,000-plus yearly deficit, then brought those grades back virtually.
- Virtual and hybrid courses let small schools offer more electives without hiring a teacher for each, which helps keep upper-grade students enrolled.
- Texas funds schools on attendance, so every student a virtual or hybrid program keeps brings a full year of state funding with them.
Why virtual schools still have unfair reputation
Many district leaders met virtual school in March 2020, when it showed up overnight with no lesson plans and a borrowed hotspot. That first impression went onto its permanent record.
James credits the people who did that work. “None of the teachers that were teaching virtually then had ever taught like that before,” he says. “[They were] just figuring it out and throwing stuff together and putting it on Class Dojo or whatever platform.”
Teachers held school together with a webcam and sheer force of will. Grading every future program against that semester is like judging air travel by the Wright brothers’ first flight, which lasted 12 seconds.
Texas has already moved on. Its 2025 virtual learning law banned “Roomies and Zoomies,” the practice of teaching kids in the room and on Zoom at once.
The reputation is harder to delete, partly because superintendents are busy deleting everything else. “I open my inbox in the morning and there are countless emails from vendors,” James says. Plenty of them promise to solve everything by Friday.
The flood keeps good options out of view, and the course gap stays put. Fewer than half of U.S. high schools offered calculus in 2021-22.
Run your budget like a box score
Coaches read box scores. James reads budgets the same way, and his upper grades had been giving away possessions for years.
Before the cut, Treetops ran ninth through twelfth grade with about 60 students and ten teachers. James shares that the gap between what those grades cost and what they brought in topped a quarter million dollars a year. “We were bleeding money.”
Families left for sports and band, and a class of 30 or 40 kids could shrink to eight by high school. James is realistic about the competition. “We’re never going to have a football team here at Treetops,” he says. In Texas, that’s roughly like announcing you’re skipping Thanksgiving.
How Texas SB569 opened the door
Then Texas changed the rules. SB 569 lets districts and charters offer anything from a single virtual course to a full-time virtual or hybrid campus, and state guidance points to individual courses as a way to cover staffing gaps. The bill’s author counted more than 51,000 Texas students already learning virtually and predicted 100,000 by 2028.
The staffing math could stay tight for a while. About 30% of new Texas teacher hires in 2024-25 were uncertified, roughly triple the pre-pandemic rate.
James keeps his pitch modest on purpose. Educators have waited out plenty of next big things, and he’s clear that “virtual schools [are] not going to solve every issue.”
What moves the needle is the partnership behind the platform, he says.
“It’s got to go beyond an email. It’s got to be this relational thing that happens.”
When our Subject team visited around the first day of school, they sat down in his conference room and cleared in about an hour what would have taken a string of emails.
Sixty minutes was all they needed, and while that might seem too short for a “perfect” plan, James also warns against waiting for one. “If you wait until then, you’re going to be so far behind,” he says.
With Subject as a partner, Treetops reopened grades 7-12 in a virtual/hybrid capacity.
“The Catalog Math” allows for a bigger course list
James and his team found the fix by considering what wasn’t working and getting creative. “The Catalog Math” is a framework that all admins will find easy to implement in their next district-wide meeting.
The open shot
Count the courses you’d add tomorrow if staffing weren’t the problem. Treetops had three electives. A platform partner put far more on the menu without posting a job for each one. “It’s expanded access to these opportunities that our students would have never been able to get before,” James says.
The rebound
Count the students who leave between sixth and ninth grade. Texas funds schools on attendance, so every exit walks out the door with a year of state money. Keep the student and you keep the funding.
The points you spot the other team
Every district starts a few points down. Texas charters receive no local property tax revenue, a gap James puts at about $1,500 per student per year. Your number might be a failed bond or a hiring freeze. Know it before you run the rest.
The run
Add it up. Courses delivered through a partner don’t require a hire. Students who stay bring funding with them. The spread between those two numbers pays for the in-person seats families still want. James calls it building “that financial muscle,” and he’s aiming to bring back in-person seventh through twelfth grade “hopefully within the next three to five years.”
The coaching staff at the heart of it all
James says that teachers stay on the court for all of it.
“The teacher is the most critical element in the classroom.”
His seventh and eighth graders work through the platform on campus with an adult in the room, and a daily check-in lets students flag when they’re stressed. James reads those in real time and answers with empathy:
“I see you going through something, but, you know, you’re not alone.”
Run the math on your own numbers. Pull exits by grade, then list the courses you can’t staff. You’ll get your answer by the afternoon.
For James, it all comes down to the line he uses to explain why he got into administration. “Once you know better, you do better.” The districts that run their catalog math this year could be the ones posting a longer course list next fall.
Run your own Catalog Math with Subject. We’ll help you map the courses you could add this year without posting a job for each one.
FAQs
What is Texas Senate Bill 569?
Texas Senate Bill 569 is a 2025 law that lets districts and charter schools offer virtual and hybrid instruction, from a single course to a full-time campus. SB 569 also banned “Roomies and Zoomies,” the practice of teaching students in the room and on Zoom at once.
Is virtual school the same as remote learning during COVID?
Virtual school today runs as a planned program, while remote learning in 2020 was built overnight by teachers who had never taught online. Dr. James Whitfield, superintendent of Treetops School International, credits those teachers for improvising with whatever platforms they had.
How can small schools afford to offer more electives?
Small schools can offer more electives by running courses through a virtual platform partner instead of hiring a teacher for each subject. Students who stay enrolled also bring attendance funding, which can help pay for in-person seats.
Do virtual and hybrid programs replace teachers?
Virtual and hybrid programs keep teachers at the center of learning. At Treetops School International, hybrid students work through the platform on campus with an adult in the room, and Dr. James Whitfield answers daily student check-ins in real time.