Hutch News article on Moundridge

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Plans for virtual school postponed
By Chris Green
Hutch News, September 14, 2000

MOUNDRIDGE - The virtual school proposed in the Moundridge school district will remain under discussion, though the project is virtually dead for this school year.

Concerned about the extent of the district's involvement in the proposal, the Kansas Department of Education this week nixed any possibility of state reimbursement for the virtual school's 200-plus students.

The decision was announced in a meeting with USD 423 Superintendent Rustin Clark on Monday. Later that day, Clark told the local school board he was pulling the plug on the Mid-Kansas Independent Academy project for this year.

"The way it was structured, it amounted to allowing a school district to net $320,000 in state funding for doing very little, if anything," said Rodney Bieker, the general counsel for the Kansas Department of Education. "It was not going to be acceptable for the school to allow parents and students to choose their own curriculum and expect state reimbursement."

A handful of virtual schools, including a three-year-old charter school in Leavenworth County's Basehor-Linwood district, currently operate in the state of Kansas. The state funds these schools according to the number of full-time-equivalent students, the same as any other school in the state.

According to Nicole Williams, the assistant director of the Basehor-Linwood Virtual Charter School, students who "attend" virtual schools can live anywhere in the state and study public-school-based curriculum at home using the Internet to communicate with teachers and access lesson plans.

Basehor-Linwood will have around 350 virtual students this year, she said, and offers support for parents and students.

Moundridge's academy would have taken the virtual school concept a step further, Clark said, in allowing students and parents to tailor the school's curriculum to their own needs.

While this flexibility was at the crux of Moundridge's proposal, the way it was implemented ran afoul of the state's standards.

"We're not really sure where we are going to go from here," Clark said. "We're going to work reaching an agreement with the state to form a valid program."

Bieker said the state's objections involved the concept that parents and students would be allowed to build a curriculum at their whim and use public school funding to pay for it. Bieker also said that the state would require a program to include stronger district involvement, more instructor support and an appropriate assessment with a legitimate and regularly scheduled testing program.

"It may be possible," Bieker said of the proposed academy. "But it is not acceptable to allow parents to do whatever they want."

Still, Clark said, he thinks the flexibility offered by the school is the key to both its enrollment and effectiveness.

"The number of people we had enrolled show that need is there," said Clark, who also said that none of the students who enrolled were considering public schools as an alternative.

"Why should someone not be allowed a different textbook that teaches the same material just because it's not the one used in the district?"

In the meantime, Clark said, his district - with the support of the school board - will continue to explore the possibility of opening a virtual school.

"We're going to make a decision next year as to whether we will open," Clark said. "Hopefully, we'll be able to make that determination long before September of next year."