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By RONNIE BLAIR

rblair@tampatrib.com

Published: October 22, 2009

LAND O' LAKES - The demand for the school district's new Pasco eSchool has outpaced expectations, the administrator who oversees it said Tuesday.

"We opened at an amazing pace," JoAnne Glenn told the Pasco County School Board. "We were hoping to open slowly."

Already, the school has added nine teachers to the 28 that began the school year with the program in August, she said.

Pasco eSchool's elementary program has 43 full-time students in kindergarten through fifth grade.

The middle school population is smaller, with just 11 full-time students. Middle school students can enroll in eSchool part time, though, and there have been 156 enrollments for individual courses. In some of those cases, students may be taking more than one course.

At the high school level, 60 students are enrolled full time, and there are an additional 812 course enrollments from part-time students.

The Pasco County School Board approved plans for Pasco eSchool in the summer after the state Legislature required that every school district in the state offer an online school in 2009-10.

The district contracted with the Florida Virtual Academy and the Florida Virtual School's Connections Academy to provide the elementary courses but uses its own staff for middle and high school.

Reporter Ronnie Blair can be reached at (813) 259-7065.

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