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News
Charter school topic for special meeting : News : Oswego Ledger-Sentinel : Hometown Newspaper for Oswego and Montgomery, IllinoisCharter school topic for special meeting
| For profit-firm to present proposal to Oswego School District Board
| by Lyle R. Rolfe
| 3/7/2013
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A plan to offer online charter schools to students in the Oswego School District and 17 other area school districts will be explained to Oswego School District Board members in a special meeting tonight, Thursday, at 7 p.m.
The meeting will be held in the second floor meeting room at Oswego East High School, 1525 Harvey Road, Oswego.
Superintendent Dr. Matthew Wendt said he met this week with representatives of a private group that is proposing the schools. He said the schools would be run by a private for-profit company, the Illinois Virtual Charter School at Fox River Valley.
He added that this is the Illinois arm of a company that is in multiple states. The firm also has been presenting its program to other area districts, he said.
Wendt plans to present full details at tonight's special meeting and answer board members' questions.
"The meeting is going to be like a work session to answer all the board's questions," he said.
Wendt said the company has filed an application with a state commission for charter schools to have the 18 districts involved.
In addition to tonight's special board meeting, a public hearing will be held on the proposal on Tuesday, March 19.
Wendt said representatives of the company will be at the hearing to present their proposal and answer questions. Residents will be allowed to ask questions at the hearing, he added.
Wendt said board members will have time to make a decision and hear from residents before they will be asked to vote on the proposal at their April 8 board meeting.
All of these are timelines set by the state, he said.
"If it's approved, we have a new partner in town. We would partner to provide on-line education to K-12 students. If the board would deny the request, the company has the right to appeal the decision to a charter commission, which has been appointed by state legislators. The commission can then override the local board's decision," he said.
Wendt said all 18 districts will be presenting the programs to their boards this month because a public hearing must be held in every district by March 31.
He said he received a letter several weeks ago from the company notifying him that they were pursuing this charter school. A few weeks later the company notified him that they had filed an application with the state, he said.
Wendt said the charter school would not be the same as present public schools with numerous extracurricular programs and athletics, but it would be a school that would take students from Oswego.
"The intent of the proposal is to have students enroll in their school," Wendt said.
He added that the district has learned that under state statute general aid funding and other supplemental dollars stay with the student enrolled in a charter school.
That supplemental funding is used for transportation, ELL (English Language Learners) programs, Title I and Special Education.
"All of those dollars would follow the student," he said, noting that this would be a revenue loss for the district.
He added that charter schools outside of Chicago have not been very popular.
Wendt said he believes there is an opportunity for the district to partner with a company or a vendor to provide the district with an effective and efficient online learning program.
"I'm a believer in online learning and I'm a believer in school choice. But I don't believe it should be at the expense of the public school system.
"I'm an advocate of online learning and believe it should be offered to more and more students. That's the direction we should be headed. What I don't believe is having an outside company with out-of-state ties providing an opportunity for online learning at what could potentially be some difficulty for our district," he said.
Finances are one area of the program he said the district should consider as well as academic achievement levels, graduation rates and other important factors that all districts want to be judged by.
He also noted that there would not be any local representation on the company board like there is with a local school district.
"I think it should be an interesting meeting," he said.
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