AUGUSTA, Maine — Maine’s second virtual charter school will open this fall, after the Maine Charter School Commission gave its final approval during a Feb. 3 meeting.
The commission backed the Maine Virtual Academy’s contract in a 4-0 vote, with three commission members absent.
“We are thrilled,” Amy Carlisle, chairwoman of the school’s board, said in an email. “We are greatly looking forward hiring our staff and teachers and are focused on the process now of opening the school.”
The school board expects to hire a chief financial officer, eight teachers, one or two special education teachers and a counselor in the coming weeks and months.
The academy expects to open with about 300 students, grades 7-12, and to grow to 750 students by its fifth year of operation, according to application materials. The school will establish in-state offices in either Hampden or Augusta, Carlisle said.
Maine Virtual Academy will contract with Virginia-based educational service provider K12 Inc., the largest national player in online education.
K12, a publicly traded for-profit, has suffered legal and image issues in recent years — troubles the state’s charter school commissioners were well aware of and carefully researched, according to Chairwoman Shelley Reed.
The education giant faced a federal class-action lawsuit in 2013 alleging that the company made false claims about its educational results to embolden investors. Those charges were later dismissed for lack of merit. Complaints that the company boosted enrollment through “deceptive” recruiting, were dismissed after a $6.75 million settlement.
K12 also has been the target of a trademark infringement lawsuit in Florida. K12’s stock has taken several hits in recent years, resulting from slowed growth and unrest at several of its institutions. Agora Cyber Charter School in Pennsylvania has been considering dropping its contract with K12 due to serious performance issues. K12 also lost its management contract with Colorado Virtual Academy in 2014 due to poor academic outcomes.
The National Collegiate Athletic Association this school year stopped accepting coursework from two dozen online charters managed by K12 Inc. after finding they didn’t meet NCAA’s education standards. NCAA requires “regular interaction” between students and teachers during the course. K12 countered that NCAA provided no “measurable standards” for what that interaction should look like.
Reed argued that many of these issues stem from the fact that K12 is such a large operation. Maine’s school, however, will be smaller than many other states’ and can be monitored with the right checks and balances, she said.
Those behind the school applied twice before this successful bid, Reed said. The first application was withdrawn and the second rejected last spring due to concerns about lack of independence and oversight authority on the part of the school board.
Reed was the lone commissioner to vote against entering contract negotiations with the school in November, citing concerns about K12. She says she changed her vote after being convinced that there were adequate oversight, monitoring and performance evaluation plans outlined in the contract.
“When it comes down to it, enough people on the commission felt we had mitigated some of the issues other states had with this group,” Reed said. If MVA fails to meet its performance or reporting metrics, it runs the risk of not having its contract renewed, she added.
“The commission’s concerns have been addressed with contract provisions that allow us great flexibility with our curriculum vendor and with the fact that we have a very strong and engaged board,” Carlisle said. “Some state virtual charter schools that use K12 are exceptionally large and we have always felt that is comparing apples to oranges.”
Virtual charter school advocates say they provide a place for students who don’t mesh well with traditional public schools. Students with odd schedules, such as aspiring or professional athletes and musicians, students with health issues or disabilities that make it difficult to travel to school, or children who have been victims of severe bullying all can benefit from a Web-based education, proponents argue.
Opponents criticize charter schools, arguing their management based in companies rather than local school boards. Others decry the concept of for-profit education, arguing that it makes the schools beholden to shareholders rather than students or education results. School districts have expressed concerns that increasing the number of charter schools negatively affect public education budgets and, therefore, quality of public education.
Maine Connections Academy, the state’s first virtual charter school, is in the midst of its first year of operation.
MCA Principal Karl Francis said about 280 students are enrolled in classes through his school, and there is a strong waiting list with plans to grow. Next year, he expects enrollment to hit 380-390. The school eventually hopes to have an enrollment 1,000 strong.
There are five other charter schools in the state — Cornville Regional Charter School, Fiddlehead School for Arts & Sciences in Gray, Maine Academy of Natural Sciences in Fairfield, Harpswell Coastal Academy, and Portland’s Baxter Academy of Technology and Science.
The state is still trying to iron out a system for funding of charter institutions, a decision that public schools, charter schools and state officials agree is desperately needed. Currently, public school districts have to cut checks to charter schools for each student in their district who decides to go to a charter institution. The system is sluggish and confusing for everyone involved, Reed said, and can leave a district that loses several students to charter schools with serious budget problems.
Under a bill proposed by Rep. Brian Hubbell, D-Bar Harbor, a member of the Legislature’s Education Committee, the state would treat charter schools — both virtual and bricks-and-mortar — as their own “school district,” so the state could fund them with general purpose aid, taking some of the burden off the shoulders of districts that are not longer educating charter school converts.
Francis said his school has students from 65 different sending districts. His staff has to bill each of those districts and process returned payments for each student.
“That is a complete nightmare logistically,” Francis said. “Everybody agrees it needs to get better.”
Follow Nick McCrea on Twitter at @nmccrea213.