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Expect Clash Over Virtual School To Intensify At NC BOE

February 8, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Leanne Winner of the North Carolina School Boards Association thinks online charters should get less money than traditional charters. They don’t have expenses like maintaining a campus, she says, and they don’t need as many teachers.

True, but Kwitowski says online charters have additional technology expenses.

These are arguments that will play out before the state school board. It’s asked the state’s E-Learning Commission for guidance.

The virtual charter school already has an advocate in State Senator Fletcher Hartsell of Cabarrus County. Hartsell helped draft the charter school law passed in 1996.

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‘Virtual’ Charter School Goes To State Board For Approval

January 30, 2012 By Leave a Comment

“Most education organizations and groups have representation in state capitals and we do too,” says Jeff Kwitowski, a spokesman for the company

K12′s North Carolina team includes Jeff Barnhart, a former state representative for Cabarrus County, where the North Carolina Virtual Academy would be based.

K12 probably needs those lobbyists. That’s because the North Carolina School Boards Association and others are making the case against online charters.

“The way our funding formulas work in North Carolina for both the traditional public schools and charter schools is that it’s based upon estimated student counts and home school students aren’t included in those counts,” says Leanne Winner, NCSBA’s chief lobbyist and director of government relations.

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Virtual charter school up for vote in Cabarrus County

January 24, 2012 By Leave a Comment

CABARRUS COUNTY, N.C. — North Carolina’s first virtual charter schools could start up in Cabarrus County if board of education officials approve the request Monday night.

According to the request, certified teachers would work from home and students’ work would be supervised by their parents.

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‘Virtual’ Charter School Looks To Cabarrus, Seeks BOE Partnership

January 23, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Imagine you’re a kid who has an illness that makes it difficult to leave home, or you get bullied all the time, or you’re way ahead of your grade. This classroom might appeal to you. It’s just you and a friendly voice on the computer.

“This is your research partner speaking. I’ll be guiding you through your ocean exploration,” says the voice as the screen asks you to identify various fish.

This lesson is taught by a for-profit company called K12 Inc. K12 wants to start an online charter school in Cabarrus County called the North Carolina Virtual Academy. In fact, this would be the first online charter school in North Carolina.

The company wants to partner with Cabarrus County Schools. It would be a business arrangement of sorts. The school system would receive up to $550,000 in return for serving as a consultant.

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EARLY GRADUATION: Real learning in virtual school

January 22, 2012 By Leave a Comment

GREENSBORO – Former Western Guilford football players Brock and Clayton Stadnik, who graduated from high school early and have enrolled at South Carolina, are just two in an army of students who have or will take online classes this school year through the N.C. Virtual Public School.

“We just passed 50,000 enrollments for this school year (Thursday),” said Ross White, the executive director of the school. “We’re a big school all of a sudden.”

More than 32,000 students took N.C. Virtual Public School courses last school year, according to the N.C. Department of Public Instruction, making it the second-largest virtual school by enrollment in the country. The N.C. Virtual Public School was indirectly established by the General Assembly and first offered online courses in June 2007.

It provides a greater array of course work than many traditional high schools, including advanced placement and special-needs classes, in addition to opportunities for students to catch up with their classmates or work ahead. Virtual school teachers must meet the same licensing requirements and the course work and students are held to the same standards as those in traditional high schools, state superintendent June Atkinson said.

The technologies used by the virtual school include:

l Video.

l Blogs.

l Wikis, which are web pages that can be modified by several members of a group.

l Active worlds, which allow users to explore 3D virtual reality environments, as in video games.

l Online discussion tools.

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Cabarrus school board discusses reservations about virtual charter school

January 11, 2012 By Leave a Comment

CONCORD, NC — Members of Cabarrus County Board of Education expressed concerns during their work session on Monday regarding an application submitted by North Carolina Virtual Charter Academy.

The board is scheduled to vote at its Jan. 23 business meeting on whether or not the district will grant preliminary approval and support the charter school.

Board members first discussed this at their business meeting last month. At that meeting, they heard that, if it is ultimately approved, the virtual charter school would be based in Cabarrus County and would enroll students statewide.

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Cabarrus school board hears proposal for virtual charter school

December 14, 2011 By Leave a Comment

CONCORD, N.C. –The Cabarrus County Board of Education heard about and discussed a potential virtual charter school at its business meeting on Monday that, if approved, would be based locally.

Joseph Chisholm, vice president of school development for K12, Inc., which is a technology-based education company that provides curriculum, presented a proposal for the school, and the board’s attorney, Sarah Stone, told members about the process for review. Stone told the board that it needs to make a decision about this by Feb. 1, 2012.

If approved, the virtual charter school would be based in Cabarrus County and is meant to enroll students statewide. When it is proposed to open, in the fall of 2012, it would initially serve students in grades kindergarten through 10th, but it would grow to include 11th and 12th-grade students, Chisholm said.

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I-SS eludes Virtual High School funding woes

December 7, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Worries from the N.C. Department of Public Instruction over whether or not the state will be able to fully fund all the districts using its Virtual High School program this year will not affect the students of Iredell-Statesville Schools.

The state is expecting a $3 million funding shortfall in the virtual program’s budget and has temporarily suspended 15 districts from enrolling any more students in the spring, including Mooresville City Schools, because their enrollment exceeded expectations.

I-SS is not one of the 15, and David Blattner, principal of the Collaborative College for Technology and Leadership and overseer of the district’s virtual program, said I-SS will have no problems funding all its students that want to take online classes.

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Cash for N.C. high school online classes tapped out

November 29, 2011 By Leave a Comment

The virtual school receives $20 million for its budget, which is divided among school systems based on previous enrollment. Teachers are paid to teach online courses that often are hard to find in districts or don’t fit a student’s schedule.

Officials expect more than 28,000 students in the spring – 3,000 more than originally forecast.

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Virtual School is $3 million short

November 23, 2011 By Leave a Comment

High school students from Wake County and across the state are being blocked, at least temporarily, from attending the N.C. Virtual Public School in the spring because of a likely $3 million funding shortfall.

State education officials say the funding shortfall is caused by explosive enrollment.

The virtual school’s $20 million budget is divided among school systems based on their previous enrollment in the program. The solution will require school systems such as Wake to decide whether they want to tap into already strained local budgets to pay for students to take courses online.

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