Struthers board starts its own cyber school

Struthers board starts its own cyber school

struthers

To lure students back from cyber schools, the Struthers School District is opening one of its own.

The school board voted 4-1 Tuesday to approve a one-year contract with VLN Partners, a cyber-curriculum provider that now serves 40 school districts in Pennsylvania.

“Schools districts need a proven alternative to cyber schools that works,” Bill Driver, a sales consultant with VLN, told the board at its regular meeting. “If you don’t have an alternative to an e-community school, they’ll leave.”

Forty-seven students left the school district for cyber schools in the 2011-2012 school year, Driver said. The loss cost the district $269,000, or $5,740 a student, he said.

That state funding would come back to the school district if a student chose the Struthers VLN program, and the district will pay $4,250 to VLN for each student who enrolls. The savings to the district will be $1,500, Driver said.

Students in the VLN program would get a Struthers diploma.

VLN can customize a curriculum for an $18,000 fee, Driver told the board, but the board is going to use a standard VLN curriculum.