LA GRANDE — Oregon Charter Academy, an accredited public online school, is on pace to again break its enrollment record.

The free online school, which was known as Oregon Connections Academy until earlier this year, currently has 4,300 students signed up for the 2020-21 school year.

A year ago at this time, it had 3,700 students enrolled, and the academy finished the school year with 4,600 students, including about 150 in Eastern Oregon. The total of 4,600 was the highest total in its history, according to Allison Galvin, Oregon Charter Academy’s executive director.

Galvin said that Oregon Charter Academy traditionally picks up students throughout the school year and she expects this to happen again in 2020-21. She noted that interest in online learning is increasing because of the COVID-19 pandemic and the changes it has forced upon brick-and-mortar education.

“We have quite a few students in the pipeline,” Galvin said.

Because of the anticipated growth, the online school will be adding teachers in 2020-21.

“We want to maintain our same student-to-teacher ratios, so that we can continue providing the same level of face-to-face instruction,” Galvin said.

Oregon Charter Academy, as a public school, must conform to directives issued by the Oregon Department of Education and Gov. Kate Brown. Because it is an online school, the only change the academy has had to make since the pandemic started is that it no longer conducts field trips.

In order to conform to social distancing restrictions, Oregon Charter Academy educators will again be conducting virtual excursions with their students. Sites they will be visiting include the Smithsonian museums in Washington, D.C., and NASA centers.

Oregon Charter Academy has made a number of upgrades over the summer, including a switch to the Canvas Learning Management Program.

“It is more dynamic,” Galvin said.

She said the platform and its mobile apps make it easy for students to have one-on-one interactions with their teachers.

A county-by-county breakdown of Oregon Charter Academy’s enrollment is not yet available, but Galvin said that in 2019-20 the school’s enrollment was evenly distributed across the state on a per capita basis. The 150 Eastern Oregon students it had last year were from at least nine counties, including Union, Wallowa and Baker counties.