High school students in Beaver County will be able to take the classes they need at more than a dozen campuses when school starts this fall.

If their school doesn't offer certain classes they want, students will have the option of signing up for those classes in another school district in the county, thanks to a trailblazing idea called the Regional Choice Initiative.

"We are trying to knock down the walls of the traditional schoolhouse," said Tom Zelesnik, executive director of the Beaver Valley Intermediate Unit.

While the concept behind the initiative is to offer students more academic choices and thereby discourage them from enrolling in charter and cyber schools, some say it could also be a baby step toward consolidating the 15 separate school districts in Beaver County.

"I don't believe this initiative in its present form will result in a countywide consolidation, but it will make people more open to the idea of considering it," said Mike Thomas, superintendent of Monaca School District.

Dr. Thomas added that he thinks "the next logical step is districts will begin to seriously consider sharing services outside those currently outlined in the Regional Choice Initiative guidelines."

School districts in Beaver County are under pressure to address the growing imbalance caused by a sharp decline in student population over the past 36 years and no significant reduction of staff or number of facilities.

Records provided by the intermediate unit show the total enrollment in all Beaver County school districts in 1971-72 was 48,536, while total enrollment in 2006-07 had dropped to 25,002.

A further drain on public school resources has been caused by students transferring to cyber and charter schools in Beaver County at a total cost of $7.7 million in tuition paid last year to those schools.

"Over the last several years, we've been seeing enrollments in public schools going down, charter school enrollment going up and the cost of education going up," said Kenneth Voss, superintendent of Ambridge Area School District. "The funds follow students to cyber and charter schools, and we wanted to see what alternatives we could offer the students."

With a student population of 2,040, Beaver Area School District is the fourth-largest in the county. Business manager Victor Raskovsky said the district spent $636,000 to send 76 students to cyber and charter schools last year.

"That's an awful lot of money to be spent, particularly when we can't reduce our operating costs by the loss of those students," Mr. Raskovsky said.

None of the 15 school districts in Beaver County has more than 3,000 students.

Three of them -- Midland Borough, Monaca and Western Beaver County -- have fewer than 1,000 students, which limits their ability to offer advanced courses.

The Regional Choice Initiative will pave the way for the handful of high school students in Midland Borough School District to take calculus and French classes at Ambridge School District and performing arts at Beaver Area School District without having to transfer out of their home district.

"This gives our kids choices they wouldn't have at their home schools at a cost that's more competitive than what state law requires us to pay charter and cyber schools," said Ron Sofo, superintendent of Freedom Area School District.

"The cyber school and charter school law is flawed," Dr. Sofo said. "Instead of us waiting for someone to change it, we are taking steps to provide a quality education that's accountable at a cost taxpayers can afford."

The state Department of Education does not have a role in the Beaver County plan. But last month, Education Secretary Gerald Zahorchak expressed support for a drive to change the state law that allows charter schools to collect more from taxpayers than it actually costs to educate their students.

The Joint Legislative Budget and Finance Committee released a report last month regarding the cost-effectiveness of consolidating school districts. Among its findings were that even if cost savings could be assured, consolidations would be controversial.

The researchers surveyed the superintendents of districts they saw as potential consolidation candidates and found that although 61 percent of them indicated a willingness to consolidate, it would face strong opposition in their communities.

Reasons include socioeconomic and demographic differences between school districts, the potential for longer bus routes, loss of local control, loss of local identity that people enjoy through high school sports programs and recent investments in facility improvements that would discourage closing some schools.

School districts with lower tax rates might have to raise taxes to match rates of districts with higher taxes. Jobs would be lost and school boards would be disbanded.

For now, the Beaver County initiative includes 13 of the 15 school districts in Beaver County and Ellwood City School District in Lawrence County. Big Beaver Falls school board members voted to table the issue until they receive more information and Ambridge is still reviewing certain aspects of it.

Transportation issues are still being worked out.

Students will most likely provide their own transportation to and from the schools where they attend classes, but it's possible that initiative courses could also be offered as cyber classes that wouldn't require students to physically travel to other schools.

"More than half of the districts don't offer cyber schools and they lose students to cyber charter schools," said Daniel Matsook, superintendent of Center Area School District. "This will hopefully save some of those losses."

Center Area and Monaca are currently discussing a merger.

But Dr. Matsook is reluctant to describe the Regional Choice Initiative as a move toward a countywide consolidation of school districts because it would involve the loss of jobs.

"This is a sharing of services and keeping the status quo," Dr. Matsook said.