Bellevue-based Online High School Issues Layoff Notices

Insight Schools Inc.  has told the state it plans to close its Bellevue location and has issued layoff notices to 168 employees, the Employment Security Department said Friday on its website.

The closure of the Insight School of Washington, the state's first online public high school, at 12011 Bel-Red Road is listed as permanent, with layoffs taking effect July 18.

The news follows a report in the Portland Business Journal reported that a similar office in Portland issued layoff notices, related to Insight parent company Kaplan’s decision to sell its online K-12 schools to K12 Inc., which also operates online public high schools in Washington.

The Business Journal quoted a company spokesman, who said the fate of the Portland school and its employees wasn’t determined, but that it expected to extend job offers “to certain individuals.”

A message left at Insight School of Washington after business hours Friday wasn’t immediately returned.

Insight School of Washington is a statewide online high school that is under contract by the Quillayute Valley School District in Forks, Wash. Though the school is a program of the Quillayute Valley district, any high school student in the state can enroll in the virtual program, which is a tuition-free public school and which provides students with a computer and conducts all classes online.

The program enrolled more than 2000 students in May 2010, the latest numbers available on its school report card on the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction's website. That year, Insight provided about 2/3rds of the Forks-based district's enrollment.

K12, Inc. operates other public online schools in Washington through other districts, including Washington Virtual Academies, iQ Academy, Bethel Learning Academy, and others.