Florida Virtual School is celebrating their 10-Year Anniversary!  For a decade now, FLVS has been offering their online education system to thousands of students.  Starting with only 77 students, FLVS has overcome many obstacles and accomplished much more than they could ever have dreamed.  Who played crucial roles in the development of FLVS?  Who were the pioneers that worked so hard to develop the online school that we have now?   

The number one visionary of Florida Virtual School has to be the Chief Executive Officer, Julie Young.  In 1997, Ms. Julie Young was asked to take on the task of implementing a contract for a ‘web school,’ for which a grant had been approved. 

Ms. Young explains, “My idea was to create and reinvent school.  I wanted to reinvent school so that kids could play a part in it.  That it would be all about their needs and not all about the adults needs.  That it could be learning that could take place on their mind-clock, and their time.  It would a place where parents would feel welcomed and invited.  I wanted it to be all about the kids.”

The first staff meeting was held that year and consisted of only 9 people.  Ms. Young’s task was to bring people together to create this new idea, partly to help ease the over-crowding situation in Orange County.  Ms. Young saw the importance of choosing these pioneers carefully. 

“I didn't want a staff who just came to the table so that I could instruct them, but I wanted a staff that was energetic and had good ideas.  Early on we had book studies together.  Our first book study was called, The Magic of Teamwork, and it was very different, very intimate.” 

One of the people who sat at that table is Ms. Jennifer Whiting, who is now Director of Creative Projects at FLVS.  When contacted by Ms. Young, it was not an easy decision for Ms. Whiting to leave her job at Cypress Creek High School in Orange County, FL to come on board. 

“Just imagine...I had a nice, safe job where I knew what I was doing, and she was asking me to give that up for something that was completely new and unsure.”  There was no guarantee that the idea would work or last. 

Ms. Whiting asked advice from friends and family, and finally took her aunt’s advice.  “She reminded me that I always enjoyed new things and liked being a risk taker.”  Ms. Whiting accepted the job to take the “journey of a lifetime,” and her chemistry class was the first course offered by FLVS. 

Because the whole idea of virtual education was new and uncharted, it took a lot of research and development at the beginning to create something that would meet the goals of a student-centered school that these pioneers envisioned. 

Ms. Whiting remembers in those early days, “It was not unusual to get up at 6 AM and work non-stop until midnight that first year.  That group work built into a system of team content creation that is still used today.”  In the beginning, staff members met in an office, but Ms. Young saw the benefit of having staff be able to work from home, and that became the model for FLVS teacher that is still used today. 

In addition to creating and developing the first courses, the staff had to get the word out by visiting schools and communities, the Department of Education, and lawmakers to explain this new venture.  Ms. Whiting described the excitement of the launch of the first courses. “In December, we opened registration for the first time. I remember we all sat around praying that we would get students. Then they started coming! We were all amazed.”

FLVS has continued to grow and become more popular. Many changes have occurred over the decade.  FLVS now has a full faculty of over 500 teachers, and as the first state-wide Internet-based school in the country, serves thousands of students of all school settings—public, private, and home-schooled.  

So what does the future hold?  Ms. Jennifer Whiting, shared her vision of the future of online learning.

“I think we are just at the beginning of the virtual school explosion. We see new schools starting up all over the world. While FLVS may not always look like it does today as technologies become more available to carry virtual learning into traditional schools and into mobile areas, I'm sure it will be an entity that pushes the boundaries of this type of education for many years to come.”

Clearly, with only a decade of history behind us, Florida Virtual School will continue to pioneer and lead education into the future, and as a school, we have much to be proud of in the past 10 years! 

When asked where she wishes to see FLVS in ten more years, Ms. Young had a clear vision.  She hopes that every student in Florida has the opportunity to try Florida Virtual School and believes that virtual school will be integrated into our educational system. 

“In 10 more years, I think the main thing would be that FLVS doesn't seem like anything different.”  

We are privileged to have this option in education and we should all be very grateful to the pioneers of FLVS who never gave up!