Bryan ISD school board approves offering online classes

This podcast contains comments from the May 4, 2026 Bryan ISD school board meeting.Bryan ISD school board members decide to offer online classes starting in the next school year.Unanimous approval was given at Monday night's meeting (May 4) to hire an outside company to teach third through 12th grade students in what administrators are calling a "virtual academy".Click HERE to read and download presentation materials shown at the May 4, 2026 Bryan ISD school board meeting.Click HERE to read and download the agreement with the private company that will be teaching online classes in Bryan ISD.BISD will pay the third party company hired to do the online instruction a base rate of about $2,900 dollars per student.Board members were told the online option was approved by state lawmakers last year. But the Texas Education Agency has yet to publish rules that impacts more than 200 public school districts that will be offering online classes.The more than one hour of discussion before the BISD board's vote also included UIL participation of online students, particularly students from outside BISD.Administrators told board members there is a goal of online students participating in on-campus activities and those students deciding to switch to taking classes on-campus.And board members were told that there will be a reorganization of BISD's central office administrators to accommodate the new option.