Cyber charter schools - where students trade chalkboards and school buses for a PC and a modem - are on the rise in Pennsylvania.

And while six new cyber schools are starting up this fall, bringing the state's total to eight, officials at the PA LEARNERS Online cyber charter school say their school offers something special.

"I think the biggest issue with us is the teacher interaction will be a lot stronger and a lot deeper," Principal Paul Kasunich said. "It's structured so the teaching component is not just an addendum to the technology, but the technology is an addendum to the teaching."

PA LEARNERS - Pennsylvania Learners Everywhere Accessing Resources, Networking Electronically and Realizing Success - is operated by the Allegheny Intermediate Unit, which provides educational services to all of Allegheny County's school districts on a cooperative basis.

The school will begin operation today, with 160 full-time students in kindergarten through 12th grade currently enrolled. Students can continue to sign up throughout the year, and there is presently no cap on enrollment.

Kasunich said the enrollment is about evenly split between the high schoolers and kindergartners through eighth-graders.

He said home-schoolers do not make up a large portion of the student body, as was expected by school officials.

"I would have thought that initially, but we're getting quite an array of enrollments," he said.

Students from anywhere in Pennsylvania may enroll in a cyber charter school, but Kasunich said most are from western Pennsylvania, with a smattering from other areas of the state.

Kasunich said once things are up and running smoothly, the school plans to start a "dual enrollment" program.

That would fill in the gap for students who want to take an advanced placement course not offered by their district or students temporarily unable to attend school.

"We're getting a lot of calls from districts wanting us to start it," Kasunich said. "I really envision that being a big piece of what we do."

Woodland Hills is one of 10 districts that officially chartered the school.

The others are Bethel Park, Shaler Area, South Allegheny, West Allegheny, Baldwin-Whitehall, Allegheny Valley, Chartiers Valley, Deer Lakes and Moon Area.

Another reason the district supported the cyber charter is because districts that do so are represented on the school's board of directors.

Woodland Hills administrative assistant Sally Leary oversees the district's home-schoolers program and the district's involvement with cyber charters.

Leary said having a voice on the cyber charter's board gives them an element of control that is important.

The district has almost 20 students enrolled in another cyber charter - the Western Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School in Midland, Beaver County - and one in PA LEARNERS.

She said most of those students are home-schoolers.

Leary said cyber charters can serve some students' needs.

"I think it depends on the student and what their family is looking for," she said.

She said the district would rather see its students enrolled in PA LEARNERS because "they're more in line with our curriculum."

The charter school provides all the computer hardware and software that students need to participate in the school, and students will have a choice of different courses.

Elementary students will choose between the Calvert curriculum, which is based on a traditional home-schooling model, and a secondary curriculum that includes a large course selection, including college-level courses.

A supplemental system that provides remedial work to address students' weaknesses also will be offered.

Kasunich said the program will require students to turn off their computers and use more traditional research methods.

He said the school's eight part-time teachers, who work from computers at their homes, do not belong to a teachers union but receive comparable pay.

Kasunich said the school, which receives an average of $4,800 from each student's home district to pay for the school, spent about $1 million to set up the technology for the cyber school.

Many districts have objected to paying for charter schools - cyber charters included - saying the schools are economically damaging to local districts.

In Allegheny County last year, PA LEARNERS was the only charter school to gain approval.

The Pennsylvania School Boards Association has a pending lawsuit that claims districts should not have to fund cyber charters because they violate the state charter school law.

Kasunich said it's likely the state will end up settling such issues by enacting legislation providing for oversight of cyber charters.

"It is good (for the state) to take a look at it," he said. "We feel confident that ours is educationally sound and fiscally prudent, so we feel pretty secure."

Kasunich, a former teacher in the Shaler Area School district, took the job with PA LEARNERS because "I wanted to look at where I could create the biggest change."

He sees the role of cyber charters as one that supports traditional public schools and also challenges and improves them.

"It pushes traditional public education to examine what they're good at and not so good at," Kasunich said.

"I think that if you talk to most people, public educators even would agree that for certain students there have to be other options. We're not out to replace public education. I see (cyber charters) expanding in tandem with public education. That makes a lot of sense."