Last year, 20 students who walked across Mansion Park and received an Altoona Area High School diploma wouldn’t have been able to do that if the district hadn’t offered a cyber education program.

They would have likely graduated from some other cyber charter school, based in another part of the state.

Educators used to suspect students chose cyber charter school because they had a problem with their regular public school. But Altoona Area Assistant Superintendent for Pupil Services Brad Hatch said he’s learned the reason is rather that cyber education is best suited to meet specific needs, including anxiety, of some students.

The Altoona Area School board is set to vote April 9 to expand the Altoona Area School District Cyber Academy — ACA — to junior high students next year.

“We have the opportunity to bring these students back and give them a quality education through the cyber programs we developed here in the district, and also at a cost savings to the district,” Hatch said at an information-only school board meeting Monday night.

The district’s cyber academy is currently not open for junior high students. Hatch anticipates high interest from those students and families.

Hatch is asking the board to approve the cost of providing junior high ACA enrollees laptop and wireless service and stipends for teachers to take on added duties of mentoring cyber students. One junior high school teacher in each core subject would be paid $25 per hour for up to 25 hours per month to mentor ACA students.

If the board approves the request, Hatch said the district would see immediate savings.

It would take enrolling about four students to break even on the cost to expand the ACA program to junior high students, he said.

“The savings to the district would be $225,000 in the first year,” Hatch said. That amount represents drawing back 20 students from cyber charters across the state.

Cyber tuition for families is free, but not for the student’s home school district. Cyber charter schools bill the school districts where the students reside for payment. Districts send cyber charters a per-student payment based on a state-established formula.

There are 268 students from Altoona enrolled in 10 different cyber charter schools.

Hatch said, “There are 268 students that should be enrolled in the Altoona Area School District.”

For Altoona Area, special education student tuition is $17,190 per year, no matter which cyber school they choose. The district pays a $8,300 per year tuition fee for regular education students to attend any cyber school.

“The potential cost to the district if all 268 students in both regular and special education cyber programs stay in cyber school for an entire year is $2.7 million,” he said. But he noted the actual cost is half of that, as cyber students often don’t spend an entire year in cyber schools.

ACA has grown significantly in the past couple years. ACA now has 73 students in grades 10-12.

“The enrollment doubled since the beginning of the school year,” Hatch said. “We are recruiting and maintaining students, developing individualized learning plans for them.”

The district is set to vote on expanding the ACA to the junior high during its April 9 meeting.

“This is a no-brainer,” said board member Rick Hoover, who was elected in November.

“Why didn’t we do this earlier?” he asked.

Assistant Superintendent for Instructional Program­ming Patricia Burlingame said the administration has been working for years to provide a cyber school experience in-house that is economical for the district.

Administrators said there are more management issues to work out before the ACA is expanded to the district’s elementary school students.