Cyber school network plans changes this fall
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
By: Bill Utterback
Beaver County Times
Sunday July 25, 2010 11:41 PM
The Beaver-based National Network of Digital Schools intends to move in some unexpected orbits in the new school year, carrying online students into classrooms and inviting public school students to touch down in cyberworld.
Two initiatives to be launched in the fall.
* NNDS will lease the former Mount Gallitzin Academy building in Baden from the Sisters of St. Joseph during the 2010-11 school year to launch a pilot program that will provide classroom opportunities, at no additional cost, for Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School students in pre-kindergarten and kindergarten classes.
The program, labeled “Building Blocks” and described as an “education innovation center,” will offer educational sessions as well as playground and gymnasium time, and lunch. If successful, it will be followed by similar centers planted across the state.
“Just as classroom schools are incorporating cyber courses into their curriculum, so we cyberschools are incorporating more bricks-and-mortar applications. This represents an extension of the education children receive through PA Cyber at home,” said Nick Trombetta, chief executive officer of NNDS. “Building Blocks offers ‘learn by doing’ sessions that will help children become excited about art, music, math, reading, and other subjects.”
Trombetta is anticipating an initial enrollment of 100 students. An open house is being planned for 7 p.m. Aug. 12.
*NNDS, through its new Pennsylvania Digital Learning Network, will partner with 12 public school districts to provide online courses beginning in the 2010-11 school year.
“If we hope to give our students the very best educational experiences, programs and services possible, all schools must offer a robust digital learning program that is on par with the best of what cyberschools offer,” said James Barker, the former superintendent of the Erie School District who has been hired as executive director of the Learning Network.
Barker, a member of the Pennsylvania Board of Education, said it is appropriate that the Learning Network’s headquarters will also be in the Mount Gallitzin building, a former Catholic school.
“By placing this education innovation center at a beautiful, century-old building that was once used for a very traditional style of education, we are going to demonstrate that such facilities can be easily and cost-effectively repurposed to capitalize upon the opportunities being created in a digital world.”
Catanzarite said that blending public school elements with cyberschool elements is a natural progression.
“We’re responding to what parents and families and educators are asking for, and it’s going to make the whole system better.”
Bill Utterback can be reached at butterback@timesonline.com.
Baden Academy pitch, part deux
Baden Academy officials will renew their conversation with Ambridge Area school directors.
The Baden Academy planning committee intends to resubmit its application for establishment of a charter school to the Ambridge Area School Board in the first week of September, according to committee spokesman Stephen Catanzarite.
Ambridge school directors rejected the application in March because, in part, of the committee’s plan to move into the former Mount Gallitzin Academy school building on the Sisters of St. Joseph campus in Baden. Pennsylvania charter school law has regulations regarding “religious objects and symbols on the premises.”
Catanzarite said that while the application has been revised, the committee still intends to lease the Mount Gallitzin Academy building. Ambridge school directors could hold public hearings, and would have to consider the application at its first board meeting occurring 45 days after receiving the application.
Baden Academy — designed to accommodate students from kindergarten through eighth grade — had families of more than 350 students complete pre-enrollment applications and intended to open for the 2010-11 school year.
If Ambridge again rejects the application, Baden Academy officials can turn to the state appeals board for charter schools for permission to open for the 2011-12 school year.
— Bill Utterback