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Web classes could help retention in Austintown
By Elise Franco
Austintown
Specialized online courses could be an incentive for former Austintown students to return to the school district and for current students to stay put, administrators say.
Superintendent Vincent Colaluca said the district, with the support of the school board, is applying for a $50,000 grant that would fund a yearlong planning period for an online academy.
Dr. David Ritchie, board president, said the grant application should be completed and sent to the state sometime this week.
Colaluca said the online school’s purpose would be to retain current students and attract students who have left the district for a charter, private or community school or through open enrollment to other public school districts.
“One of the things we’ll do during this process is survey to find out why the students left us,” he said. “Then we can start providing that kind of [online] curriculum for them.”
Colaluca said about 760 students leave the district each year. He said each student who leaves through open enrollment takes $5,700 with them, which comes out of the district’s general fund.
“We have an excellent school district here in Austintown,” he said. “I think the reason they’re leaving is because they don’t know about our schools.”
Ritchie said the online academy is still just a possibility.
“We want to see it go along and see what happens,” he said. “We’re not finalized on anything yet.”
Ritchie said the academy could strengthen student retention.
“We’re not going to secure everybody, but we can improve our numbers; that’s a big goal,” he said.
Colaluca said the online school is a viable possibility, especially because the state could fully fund it.
“I wouldn’t pursue this and go down this road if I didn’t believe we could pull this off,” he said. “There is also state money that we could apply for after the planning year.”
If awarded the grant, the 2010-2011 school year would be used for planning, and Colaluca said he hopes to have the online courses up and running for the 2011-2012 school year.
“There really is a learning process for us,” he said. “I have faith that with the structure we have already we can find a way to help these students.”