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Charter school offers educational choice

January 29, 2012 By Leave a Comment

The school day will run from 7:05 a.m.-4:55 p.m. Monday through Thursday and Friday morning. There will also be an optional half day of instruction on Saturday, Wicks said.

“The first 45 minutes and last 45 minutes of each day will be used to work on individualized things. There won’t be any homework because the children will have spent the day being very physically and mentally active and when they leave they should be able to be children again,” she said. “And the teachers won’t have a lot of homework, either. People forget teachers also have a lot of homework.”

Seeking students

With the beginning of the 2012-2013 school year, the school will be one of seven new public charter schools, joining the 13 schools operating within the South Carolina Public Charter School District. Program emphasis varies among the schools and includes a Chinese immersion curriculum, creative arts, gifted and talented, and several virtual schools that provide online instruction.

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Rock Hill schools plan more choice for students

October 29, 2011 By Leave a Comment

ROCK HILL –

As Rock Hill schools continue adding a variety of academic options, two campuses are turning their focus to science, technology, engineering and math, while another opens its elementary International Baccalaureate program to any student in the district.

Starting in August 2012, Oakdale Elementary and Saluda Trail Middle will be STEM magnet schools. Rosewood Elementary will be a “school of choice.”

Any Rock Hill student will be able to attend. Because Oakdale and Saluda Trail are magnets, they will provide transportation to and from school for students living outside the attendance area.

Students outside of Rosewood’s attendance zone will have to find their own transportation.

For now, that’s all the district can afford, Associate Superintendent Luanne Kokolis said.

“We will monitor transportation costs and the number of shuttles needed,” she said. “It may be possible in the future to offer transportation to choice schools. … We are starting small and will determine how we move forward after reviewing the start up (of) 2012-2013.”

“Choice” among South Carolina schools has become a hot topic in recent years, particularly as traditional public schools face increased competition for students from a growing number of charter and virtual schools.

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LEUSD Online Charter School Ready To Go

July 31, 2011 By Leave a Comment

All indications are that the Southern California Online Academy, the newest addition to the Lake Elsinore Unified School District, will hit the road running with a program that has caught the attention of students.

Online summer school was a success and enrollment is building for the academy, with the online charter school ready to begin session Aug. 10, district officials say. The goal is to start with 300 students, and the target can be met if parents turn in enrollment paperwork on time, said Southern California Online Academy Principal Veronica Godinez.

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Public school dropouts

July 17, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Public school dropouts litter the U.S. landscape. Profound reasons exist why children leave school short of graduation (bored, under-motivated, teased, etc). Coping with school dropout situations requires adjustments on the part of schools, parents, and students.

Regretfully, Gregg Rosann and Rebekah Richards of The American Academy feel that “trite, blame-the-victim themes only aggravate dropout situations.” This is their opinion, but it has no support on this side of the school leadership spectrum. Should K-12 school improvement gains be realized, the so-called “victims” must be part of the solutions.

3. Dropouts have ample time to plan a school exodus. With deeply underserved students, their leaving traditional school settings might be to their advantage. Assist them.

4. Some students are to be encouraged to seek schooling in non traditional venues, i.e., virtual charter schools, private schools, home schooling, etc. But they must be somewhere.

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New high school exists only online

June 19, 2011 By Leave a Comment

A new South Carolina high school will open its doors on Aug. 22, but only in a rhetorical sense.

That’s because SC Whitmore School doesn’t have doors or windows or any part of a building, other than its two-person office in Chapin. The public charter high school is completely online, and it’s enrolling now.

Whitmore’s curriculum is provided through CompuHigh, which is regionally accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. Whitmore will be the fifth virtual high school in the state, but Principal Ellen Ray said it is unique because its classes are mastery-based and year-round instead of semester-based.

Students must make an A or B in a lesson before moving on and can revise their work as many times as needed. Multiple revisions, however, detract from the end grade for the course.

Students can take up to eight courses a year and space out their work at their discretion, provided they don’t take a break for three consecutive days. Otherwise, they’ll get in trouble for virtual truancy. Parents are sent a weekly report on their children’s progress.

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Longtime South Carolina Educator to Lead Provost Academy

June 12, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Provost Academy is a state-authorized public online high school that is tuition-free to residents of South Carolina.  Nearly 1,200 students are currently enrolled in the school, and working toward their regular public high school diploma that is recognized by colleges and employers. Provost Academy’s unique individualized learning experience combines a rigorous curriculum with a personal high-touch approach to help students achieve their goals.

Ms. Sherman comes to Provost Academy from Orangeburg Consolidated School District 4, where she has served as Assistant Superintendent.  Previously, she was Director of Secondary Education in Orangeburg.

As the principal at Morningside Middle School in the Charleston County School District, Ms. Sherman led the school to a Palmetto Silver award for student achievement all three years she served as the principal. She also served as principal of West Ashley Middle School in Charleston.

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Dispatches

June 11, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Former Westbrook Superintendent Reza Namin, who resigned in March, is one of five finalists for a national superintendent-of-the-year award.

The National Association of School Superintendents announced the finalists Thursday. The other four are from Colorado, South Carolina, Louisiana and Wisconsin.

Theresa Daem, the association’s executive director, wrote in a news release that Namin’s outstanding achievements in Westbrook included the development of a strategic plan for the district, reduction in drop-out rates and the initiation of virtual high school courses.

Namin, who came to Westbrook two years earlier from the Ralph C. Mahar School District in Orange, Mass., announced in March that he had accepted a job as superintendent of the Spencer-East Brookfield Regional School District in central Massachusetts. He planned to stay through the end of the school year, but the Westbrook School Committee asked him to step down, as the district faced a budget crisis.

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South Carolina Connections Academy

June 2, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Are you looking for a non-conventional way to help your child learn?  South Carolina Connections Academy may be the place for you and your child!  Principal Alison Reaves and academy teacher Alicia Hughes stopped by Lowcountry live today to talk all about the newest thing in education!  So what students are prime candidates?  Maybe your child needs a flexible learning schedule because they are ill and often have to miss school for doctor’s appointments.  Or maybe your child learns better when they are in a controlled environment with not too many children around.  Whatever the case may be in your family, SC Connections Academy may be the choice for you!

For the rest of the article, go to South Carolina Connections Academy

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Local schools seek to lower dropout rate

June 1, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Orangeburg Consolidated School District Three will be collaborating with the other districts in the dropout walk, Superintendent Dr. Cynthia Cash-Greene said.

“I think this will help the community buy into the concept that as it takes a village to raise a child, it takes the community to see that children are educated,” she said.

“Right now, we are in the process of trying to find people who have opted out of school this year,” Cash-Greene said. “We will go out and try to get them back in school.”

District 3 plans to offer a variety of options to the dropouts, she said. Some of them may want to come back to school, but there are others who might want to go through a virtual school or work on a GED.

In 2008-09, District 3 had a dropout rate of 2.5 percent. It jumped to 3.8 percent in 2009-10.

Wilson says she’s not sure what caused the increase.

“We are still trying to examine our records,” she said. “Our enrollment dropped, so a few more (dropouts) would give it a higher percentage.”

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Five struggling school districts seek help; one could close

May 30, 2011 By Leave a Comment

State Sen. Darrell Jackson, D-Richland, has said encouraging — even forcing — districts to merge would save money and increase effectiveness. He has a bill pending before the Senate to form a study committee to look into consolidation.

Others, including Rep. Lowe, say the answer lies in technology.

“We have to go into more of a virtual-school direction,” he said, adding that computers could give students in even the poorest districts access to a wide variety of classes, taught by the best teachers. “That’s the way to save money and get the best teachers in the state spread through the entire state.”

More immediate help will come July 1, when all of the state’s school districts will see at least a 10 percent increase in their base-student cost, Ragley said. Under the Senate’s version of the state budget, school districts would get $1,959 for every student, up from the current $1,617.

But school districts say even that larger amount is well short of the $2,720 per student that a state formula says is required.

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