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State approves county’s virtual school

May 6, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Bradley County Schools’ proposal for a virtual school has been approved by the Tennessee Department of Education.

Enrollment for the new school will begin June 1 and run through July 20, according to Bradley County Virtual School principal Zoe Renfro.

Applications and supporting documentation will be completed online via the Bradley County Virtual School website.

The school received state approval April 20, after the Bradley County Board of Education submitted an application to add this option for students.

“It was something we had been wanting to do, but couldn’t do until the legislation was passed … in July,” Renfro said. “What it did was allow all school systems in the state to create a virtual school if they so chose.”

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Montgomery County Schools present balanced budget

May 2, 2012 By Leave a Comment

About 76 teachers were added in regular education, driven by the upcoming addition of Carmel Elementary School and the projected addition of 800 new students in the next year.

A full-fledged virtual school, which will likely serve about 50 students, is also budgeted for the next year.

“Students will have all of their instruction take place over the computer,” said B.J. Worthington, the district’s chief academic officer who is set to replace Harris this fall. “It’s another alternative for students who are struggling inside the classroom.”

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Consolidation talk angers, worries RM community

April 15, 2012 By Leave a Comment

At their monthly meeting on Friday, the Carter County Schools Long-Range Facilities Planning Team held preliminary discussions on the timetable for writing their strategic plan. McMahan said the group is nearing the end of their data gathering period. Planning team members have received presentations from school supervisors and other local officials on specific areas of focus, including the condition of current schools and the City of Elizabethton’s annexation plans.

McMahan noted that he is still optimistic the LRPT can start developing scenarios and complete the strategic plan for the school board and county commissioners later this summer. Once the documents are drafted, the planning team will submit the report to the Carter County Board of Education and to the Carter County Commission. They will also conduct another tour of community schools to present the plan to parents and other concerned citizens.

On Thursday, McMahan and the LRPT also expressed their pride in the teachers and students at Cloudland for their academic successes over the last year. During the 2010-2011 school term, CHS was the only school in Carter County to exceed the goals set forth under the Average Yearly Progress, or AYP, objectives.

Carter County Assistant Director of Schools Dr. Kevin Ward said the LRPT’s main objective is to find ways for the school system to be more efficient. Ward noted that the district has steadily lost over 500 students since the 2001-2002 school year.  That year, Carter County’s end-of-year membership was 5,997. Ward said the school system had reached nearly 6,100 students in the late 1990’s.

School Board member Don Julian commented that the school system is actually ahead of most school systems in East Tennessee in the area of technology. “Our schools are actually not behind technologically,” said Julian. “We have long-distance classes being taught online, along with virtual classes and our classrooms have greater access to computers than ever before.”

Several elected officials from the county commission and the school board participated in the meeting. Carter County Commissioners Steve Lowrance, Joel Street and Nancy Brown were on hand at Thursday’s session. School board members Daniel Holder, Don Julian, Keith Church and Jerry McMahan also attended the event.

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Online Learning Advocates See Virtual Schooling as an Integral Component to Education Reform

April 3, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Students in Tennessee could click their way through more courses, if a Capitol Hill push to embrace online classes for K-12 education gains traction.

Lawmakers are considering a bill that would bring requirements such as teacher-student ratios, which public schools that have traditional buildings and classrooms already adhere to, to bear for their online counterparts. That bill has not yet made it to either chamber of the Legislature for a floor vote.

Advocates this week laid out their position that while virtual schooling is edgy and perhaps intimidating to some, it is a potent tool for keeping students engaged and in school.

Virtual schools do the most to innovate education and level the playing field for kids everywhere, compared to other areas of technological reform in education, said Susan Patrick, president & CEO of the nonprofit International Association for K-12 Online Learning and a former director of educational technology for the U.S. Department of Education. Patrick was speaking at a forum at the Sheraton Wednesday hosted by the Nashville-based Beacon Center of Tennessee, a free-market think tank.

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Schools director search narrows to 5 semi-finalists

March 21, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Roper is a former consultant with the Carolina Cancer Services in Lexington, N.C.; a former executive director in the office of innovative services at Guilford County, North Carolina Schools, where he coordinated a virtual school program. He is the former director of assessment with Tennessee’s Department of Education in Nashville and is a former superintendant of schools in Elizabethton, Tenn. and Roanoke, Ala.

Roper spent the 1990s as an executive assistant to the superintendant in the Birmingham, Ala. schools system. In the 1980s-90s, he served as a program specialist/special projects and a school psychologist, also in Birmingham.

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Tennessee Virtual Academy serves area students

March 19, 2012 By Leave a Comment

As the traditional look of public education continues to change, new educational options are being offered through less traditional models, such as virtual schools.

This option will be available through Bradley County Schools, if the state gives approval, starting next year.

However, another online option is already available to all K-8 Tennessee students, through Tennessee Virtual Academy. A representative from this school, based in Union County, recently contacted the Banner in response to an article about the possibility of a local option. The school opened this year.

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Bradley students can select virtual classes

March 12, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Bradley County Virtual School will be an option for students, pending final approval by the state Department of Education.

The Bradley County Board of Education voted Monday to accept Director of Schools Johnny McDaniel’s recommendation for the school.

“It’s a very challenging program I can assure you, but it does present opportunity to children who may have a special way they want to learn,” board chairman Charlie Rose said.

McDaniel said the virtual school, where most work is done online, could provide a good option for parents interested in home schooling their children.

Board member Vicki Beaty asked how data would be gathered to determine progress, and if changes are needed.

Read more: Cleveland Daily Banner – Bradley students can select virtual classes.

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Bradley Board of Education Approves Virtual School

March 10, 2012 By Leave a Comment

The Bradley County Board of Education has approved a Virtual School program that even home schoolers could use, said Director of Schools, Johnny McDaniel.

Board member Vicki Beaty asked how student achievement would be monitored and how school officials will use the data to improve the program. Mr. McDaniel said there will be certified teachers involved with a lot of written work and face to face time. He said he does not believe it will meet the needs of all students.

Zoe Renfro, Reach Adult High School principal, said, “We will pull staff to look at the data to determine where we are, where we fall short and what we need to add.”

Mr. McDaniel said he recommended approval of the program and establishment of a line item for funding for the 2012-2013 school year. It was unanimously approved.

Angie Lyon of the architectural firm Kaatz, Binkley, Jones and Morris gave an update on the construction at Michigan Avenue Elementary and the demolition bids for Waterville Elementary, both damaged in the April 2011 tornadoes. Ms. Lyon said bids for the bleachers and athletic equipment for Michigan Avenue were received and the job has been awarded to Southern Facility Sales and Service for $74,767.

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CMCSS Unveils 2012-13 Strategic Plan

March 7, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Harris said, “Never before has what’s going on at the state level, the federal level affected our work.”

In the coming 2012-13 school year, according to the director, the primary focus in improving student achievement is special education. Harris told the board a focus of this goal will be inclusion. The system is also looking to expand training for special education teacher aids.

During the board’s discussion about student achievement, Harris touched on the exploration of CMCSS on “Virtual Schools.” Harris explained that virtual, or online schooling, can be very costly. The director also warned, like all intervention programs, the choice must be the best fit for the child it serves.

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Charter schools coming; will virtual charters make cut?

March 6, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Drawing particular fire from Loome and others has been K12 Inc. K12 is a publicly-held Herndon, Va., firm that is the largest U.S. operator of taxpayer-funded online schools and that is part-owned by billionaire Michael Milken. Milken is best known of late as a philanthropist and financier of cutting-edge cancer and epilepsy research.

But in 1990, Milken — at that time known by the pejorative title “junk bond king” — pleaded guilty to six felony counts of securities fraud and served a one-year-and-10-month federal prison sentence. Milken’s connection to K12 Inc. has been roundly flogged during the ongoing charter school debate in this state.

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