Mariana Dale/KJZZ

The Scottsdale Unified School District serves about 23,000 students.

Scottsdale Unified School District has created a new position to its governing board in preparation for an increased number of students engaged in online learning for the coming school year.

Ingleside Middle School’s Principal Dr. Christopher Thuman has been appointed Scottsdale Unified's interim principal of the district’s online learning programs, the first time this position has existed.

Scottsdale Online Learning, or SOL, will be one of the learning options for students for the first half of the school year that will begin Aug. 10.

Assistant Superintendent of Secondary Education Dr. Milissa Sackos said, "Dr. Thuman is an experienced school administrator who, in this new assignment, will actually be returning to his roots with SOL, which he helped SUSD create 10 years ago.”

She said he is the perfect for this new position.

The district predicts that as many as 20% of its 23,000 students will choose the full online model this coming school year.