Salisbury Considers Creating Cyber School

is considering starting its own online school in an effort to win back students who left to attend cyber charter schools and to offer more courses to students who attend its brick-and-mortar schools.

The online school, tentatively called VAST, or Virtual Academy Salisbury Township, would be operated in conjunction with the Carbon Lehigh Intermediate Unit's proposed Virtual Learning Program, which hopes to enlist other member school districts.

Salisbury wants to recover some of the $11,000 tuition it must pay everytime one of its students chooses to attend a , whether they are enrolled at a cyber school at home or attend a brick-and-mortar building, Assistant Superintendent Louise Beauchemin told the school board Monday at its curriculum and technology committee meeting. The district is currently facing competition from the that wants to open next fall in the old KidsPeace building at 1610 E. Emmaus Ave. The board will vote on their application Feb. 8.

The district spends about $550,000 to send 50 students to charter schools, including 30 who attend cyber schools, she said. Salisbury could offer the same type of online education for "more than 50 percent less," Beauchemin said.

An online school would enable Salisbury to offer classes it currently does not offer, such as Mandarin Chinese, Latin and forensics, said Superintendent Robert Gross.

Gross said the district would need to work with the teachers union on faculty course load and other details, since some of them would be teaching the online courses.

"This is not about cutting staff, it's about expanding curriculum," Gross said. "We still believe nothing takes the place of teachers working with students in the classroom."

Although Salisbury would tailor the program to its own needs, the program is based on the eLearn21 program created by the Capital Area Online Association. That association, comprised of 20 school districts in Pennsylvania, was created in 2008 to offer better quality online education than what they saw in competing private cyber charter schools, said Holly Brzycki, supervisor of online learning with the Capital Area Intermediate Unit.

The program offers more than 5,700 courses for kindergarten through 12th grade that comply with state and national standards, she said.  There are now about 1,300 students enrolled "due to the quality and rigor of the program," Brzycki said. About 300 of those students left their private cyber schools and returned to enroll in their home district's cyber program, she said.