Virtual Schooling in the News

The Google news alert for cyber school.

AV Board grapples with deficit
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review - Pittsburgh, PA, USA

The district will have to tighten its belt this year to make up for a deficit, officials said. Business manager John Zenone is projecting a $350,000 to $400,000 deficit by the end of the year. He said the district is currently about $262,000 over budget. Several factors contributed to the deficit. In addition to rising gas costs, one big factor is several unplanned commercial property tax refunds amounting to about a $200,000 loss for Allegheny Valley, Zenone said.

Group claims bias in charter school rejection
philly.com - Philadelphia, PA, USA

Supporters of a charter school proposal that failed to win approval last month are crying foul that the school district's decision process was tainted because a competing charter operator was on the panel that rejected their proposal. Supporters of the proposed Northern Liberties Charter School are so dismayed that they are calling on members of the state Legislature to review the system's charter application process and plan to hold a news conference at 11 a.m. today in front of the school district's administration building on North Broad Street.

Jeff-Morgan sets stage for Internet access between districts
Uniontown Herald Standard - Uniontown, PA, USA

The Jefferson-Morgan School Board entered into a four-year contract between the school district and Intermediate Unit (IU) 1 that will set the stage for high-speed Internet access and interconnectivity between all school districts in Greene, Washington and Fayette counties that enter into the agreement. The school board entered into the contract that begins on July 1 of 2007 and ends on June 30 of 2011 at their regular meeting Tuesday night. The benefits the network will offer to students, teachers and parents are numerous, according to the school district's technology coordinator, Adam Swinchock.

Learning another language
Kannapolis Independent Tribune - Kannapolis, NC, USA

Students in several Cabarrus County-area schools can look forward to new languages to learn during the 2006-07 school year. Both Cannon School and Carolina International School will add Chinese language courses to their curriculum, while A.L. Brown High is adding Latin and Spanish for Native Speaker classes. The Harrisburg-based CIS, which teaches students in grades K-8, instructs all of its students in Spanish, while Cannon School in Concord currently offers Spanish, Latin and French programs.

The Google news alert for virtual school.

Serving parents and children
Arizona Daily Star - Tucson, AZ, USA

Parents are finding they can take control of their children's education by choosing where they go to school, and schools are tailoring their programs to attract the choosy parents with a critical eye. With the increase in charter schools and school choice in Arizona, more parents are exercising the opportunity to shop for their child's education through careful research and financial planning. The results include a school free of cliques, a small or rural classroom setting, or strong programs aimed for specific types of students.

Workshop tours Christian schools, gives practical helps
Florida Baptist Witness - Jacksonville, FL, USA

Moving beyond the “why’s” of starting a Christian school to presenting a hands-on approach with “how-to” strategies and resources, the Christian School 101 workshop in Orlando got off the ground Jan. 30-31 after being postponed following the second of back-to-back major hurricane seasons in Florida. The workshop was sponsored by the Orlando-based Southern Baptist Association of Christian Schools, and the Florida Baptist Convention. Founded in 1979, SBACS is an alliance of Christian schools affiliated with Southern Baptist churches, claiming about 100 member schools out of the approximately 650 schools based at SBC churches, according to the ministry’s executive director, Ed Gamble.

Chat with Randy Weseman, superintendent of Lawrence's public ...
Lawrence Journal World - Lawrence, KS, USA

Welcome to our online chat with Randy Weseman, superintendent of Lawrence's public schools.
The chat took place on Wednesday, February 22, at 1:30 PM and is now closed, but you can read the full transcript on this page. Moderator: Hello and welcome to today's chat with Supt. Randy Weseman, the top administrator for Lawrence's public schools. I'm Dave Toplikar, World Online editor, and I'll be moderating today's chat.

Virtual Iraqis at USC: Don't Shoot the Puppet
LAVoice.org - Los Angeles, CA, USA

Here's a nifty little computer-graphics project from USC's Information Sciences Institute, which has been developing and providing street-diplomacy training simulators for soldiers headed to Iraq. They've built a facial-expression engine into computer games for soldier-trainees - a module that adds emotions and gestures to the faces of the virtual Iraqis who help them learn foreign language and customs. In the face of roadside bombs and real bullets, the value of joysticking your way through a training simulation as a fake soldier against fake civilians like this may seem questionable.

Tags: virtual school, cyber school, high school, education