SHARON Board to look at cyber schools

The board is expected to refuse to pay tuition for cyber school pupils.
By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR SHARON BUREAU
SHARON, Pa.-- Sharon City School Board is expected to adopt a resolution Monday refusing to pay tuition bills for cyber school pupils until the state courts determine if such schools fall under the charter school law.
Pennsylvania charter schools can bill a pupil's home district for educational costs and a number of cyber schools have sprung up across the state and are making the same billing arrangements, even though they have no classrooms or campus.
Einstein School: Atty. Mark Longietti, Sharon school board solicitor, researched the matter and told the board at a work session Wednesday that some schools in Butler County have gone to court to challenge the ability of the Einstein School, a cyber school in eastern Pennsylvania, to bill them for tuition charges for pupils from their districts enrolled at Einstein.
Their argument is that the schools aren't covered under the state charter school law and shouldn't have the same billing privileges.
Longietti said schools in Mercer County are watching that challenge and are considering adopting a resolution refusing to pay any cyber school bills until the courts decide the question.
He recommended that Sharon do the same.
He said that would even apply to the newly formed Western Regional Virtual Charter School set up by the superintendents of the 27 school districts in Mercer, Lawrence and Butler counties, including Sharon.
The new school is charging $2,000 a year per pupil for its educational services run through the Midwestern Intermediate Unit IV offices in Grove City.
The intermediate unit is a quasi-state agency providing educational services to those 27 school districts.
The cyber school was set up to prevent other cyber schools from drawing pupils from the three-county area.
Sharon pupils: Sharon school director Dom Russo said Sharon may have eight pupils enrolled in the new cyber school although he didn't know if all eight were actually Sharon pupils, or just pupils who live in Sharon but may have been attending private schools before enrolling in the charter school.
Longietti said he knows that Sharon has one pupil also enrolled in the Einstein School but the district hasn't received any tuition bills yet.