PORTLAND (AP) — State officials turned down petitions on Thursday to lift enrollment limits on two online charter schools, including one proposed by the North Bend School District, but said the requests would likely be granted if the schools meet a series of conditions.

The issue has been watched all over Oregon by school districts worried about the requests for waivers of the requirement that online charter schools must enroll at least 50 percent of their students from a sponsoring school district.

School superintendents were concerned that the waivers would spark an exodus from their districts. That would mean the loss of state funding, on average, of about $5,400 per student.

But without the waiver from the state Board of Education, it’s not hugely profitable or practical for the national companies behind online charter schools to open in Oregon, because they are limited in how many students they can attract.

Insight Schools, a company affiliated with the for-profit University of Phoenix, is already up and running with its online charter school, sponsored by the Lincoln County School District. The district gets to keep a portion of the per-student funding for every student that enrolls in the online school; so far, the online school has been complying with the residency requirements.

The other, the Oregon Virtual Academy, is backed by Virginia-based K12 Inc. and would be chartered by the North Bend School District, near Coos Bay.

Charter schools operate under a contract with a school district or the state and receive public funding. Such schools, which must be open to any student, are designed to encourage experimentation and are free of many of the regulations that govern traditional public schools.

Most charter schools are housed in buildings. But Oregon is home to one mega-virtual charter school, the Oregon Connections Academy, which enrolls more than 1,500 students. When the 50 percent requirement was approved, the Connections Academy was grandfathered in, so it has been able to enroll students from across the state.

On Thursday, state board members meeting in Salem told representatives of the two other virtual schools that they should reapply for the waivers, as long as they stick to a list of recommendations that would:

— Require the sending district to approve student transfers into the online school.

— Limit the Oregon Virtual Academy to 100 students per grade, with a K-8 program.

— Limit Insight of Oregon to 500 students, both full time and part time.

— Limit the waiver until July 1, 2010 for both programs.

— Ensure that there is an acceptable student-teacher ratio, that all teachers are licensed, that Oregon standards are being met and that performance audits are being conducted by a third party.

The Oregon Virtual Academy backers plan to reapply, state schools official said.

Insight’s decision is still up in the air, said Joe Novello, operations administrator for the Lincoln County School District.

But speaking only for himself, Novello said the state board of education’s process had been frustrating.

“It is clear that the board doesn’t support this concept,” he said. “All the different strategies they used to procrastinate were to prevent the schools from opening this year. I would say that whatever we come up with, there will be something wrong with it, one way or another.”