SB2, which needs only the governor’s signature to become law, also expands Wisconsin’s open enrollment period for the next school year to three full months in February, March and April.

“Our school was very involved in promoting this bill with our legislators because hundreds of families contact us throughout the school year, looking for an educational alternative to resolve an immediate academic or behavioral problem their child is facing in school. Until now, these families sometimes had to wait over a year before their child could enroll,” Horn said.

“SB2 gives families more freedom to choose the best learning environment for their child,” she said. “With this bill, students will no longer have to wait to get the education they deserve, in the environment that works best for them.”

Whether applying for immediate enrollment under special circumstances or preparing for the spring open enrollment period, the first step for families interested in virtual school, Horn said, is to fill out the brief enrollment form on the school website, www.wisconsinvl.net. This starts the enrollment process and will trigger a call from a student learning advocate to discuss the needs of the family and the offerings of Wisconsin Virtual Learning.

For the rest of the article, go to Open Enrollment Law Expands School Choice for Wisconsin Families

Our concern is a panel in Madison made up of political appointees will have the power to supersede local elected officials to create charter schools in the district. It is ironic that the party which advocates smaller government and less intrusion on local affairs is on the verge of creating a system whereby the state can dictate the establishment of charter schools.

Of no less importance to public school districts are the mechanisms to fund independent charter schools. It would be another budgetary blow to local school aid that was cut by $800 million in the biennial budget and tight caps on property tax revenue. The Oshkosh school district would lose $7,775 per student enrolled in independent charter schools. Currently, districts that establish charter schools maintain the state aid.

The bill also would eliminate the cap on the number of students enrolled in virtual schools, opening the door for out-of-state interests to own and operate charter schools funded by taxpayers.

In addition, the law would modify licensing requirements for charter school teachers allowing them to be licensed for more than one subject.

And, perhaps most startling is the provision allowing school districts, if so inclined, to convert the entire system to charter schools.

For the rest of the article, go to Excerpts from recent Wisconsin editorials

The open enrollment program allows students to attend school elsewhere than in their own district.

This year Watertown had a total of 55 students who live outside of the district that chose to attend school in Watertown. On the other side of the issue, there were a total of 185 students who live in the Watertown school district who elected to withdraw from Watertown. These students either attend a neighboring school district, are home-schooled or enroll in a virtual school.

The open enrollment figures for this school year compared to the 2010-11 school year have increased. Last year there were 49 students who came into the Watertown district and 162 who left the district.

“The enrollment numbers came in much higher than what I projected,” Doug Linse, district director of business services, said. “That means some lost revenue for the district.”

For the rest of the article, go to School details enrollment

In the Administrator’s Report, the final official September enrollment figures showed a total enrollment of 1866. This was an approximate increase of about 30 students from the same time last year. This was a positive trend since there was a drop of enrollment for each of the last few years.

Open enrollment figures were also presented. These showed that 116 students were open enrolling out of the district. Of that number, nine students were attending on-line virtual schools. On the other hand, the 121 students had open enrolled into the district, which was a positive gain. This continued the trend of many years, although this past year that had not been the case.

For the rest of the article, go to Oconto Falls School Board meeting

Schools also are using computer-based courses to provide instruction to students anytime, anywhere. There is, however, a difference between computer-based courses and virtual schools. In computer-based courses, the computer provides all of the instruction and assessment. The student progresses at his/her own rate and can only continue when a certain level of proficiency is demonstrated. The benefit to the student is that learning can take place when and where they are ready.

Virtual schools/courses incorporate the use of the Internet in a variety of ways. Typically, there is an actual teacher who is providing assignments and assessments through the use of email. When the student completes the work or the assessment, he emails his work back to the teacher for grading. Students of virtual schools may have hardbound books or use e-books. Each school is different.

While Two Rivers High School provides many of these opportunities, we recognize the changing needs of our student population and will be adding a virtual school option in the very near future.

For the rest of  the article, go to TR Schools: The face of education keeps on changing

Because of that increase, the district is looking into providing virtual learning through Cooperative Educational Service Agency 9, possibly as early as second semester of this school year, in an attempt to keep more students enrolled in the district, according to Fredrikson.

A total of 65 residents of the Two Rivers district are attending school elsewhere through open enrollment, while 52 students from other districts are enrolled in Two Rivers schools, according to the chart. That compares with 51 residents who attended elsewhere last year and 63 students who came to Two Rivers from other districts.

For the rest of the article, go to Enrollment drops by 65 at Two Rivers schools

The School Board voted Wednesday night to approve a name change, a marketing plan and curriculum modifications, with all changes deemed necessary as the district takes over control of the virtual school from its current partner, KC Distance Learning.

Starting next year, the new name of the virtual school will be Wisconsin Academy of Virtual Education (WAVE), causing one board member to humorously point out that the name follows in the long tradition of education to have a strong acronym.

Most of the discussion by the board about the changes was about the marketing plan for the virtual school, with some board members balking at the $460,000 estimated price tag.

“$460,000 just seems to be a huge amount of money to recruit about 800 students,” Board Member Ellen Langill said.

However, Finance Committee Chair Joseph Como said that the school is coming out with a new name, which will take more effort to promote, plus they want to increase promotion over what was done by KCDL, which according to the district, didn’t make much of an effort to promote the virtual school.

For the rest of the article, go to Waukesha School District’s Virtual School Getting Makeover, New Name

Begun in 2002, it offers students from Kiel and other districts a chance to take individual courses or complete their entire high school career online. The Kiel eSchool is open to ninth- through 12th-graders, although some middle school students also have taken advantage of the program in order to take courses that are a grade level ahead of them.

A committee consisting of school personnel must give its approval each time a student wants to take an online course, according to Katrina Pionek, local mentor/teacher with the program and one of the committee members.
Staff, curriculum

The eSchool has its own staff members who are employed by the Kiel School District. Heidi Dorner, associate principal at Kiel High School, serves as the principal, and in addition to Pionek, the program has eight teachers responsible for specific subjects.

For the rest of the article, go to Kiel district employs own staff for eSchool

“Citizens see buses running and kids in school and they assume everything is OK,” he said.

Six full-time staff positions have been eliminated, resulting in larger classroom sizes and fewer student programs. Rearranging was done with the 18 new staff members hired to replace 24 retiring educators, and previous class offerings were lost in the process, including a Laconia High School speech class, computer applications, prep class, basic biology, content reading and a distance learning class offered through Moraine Park Technical College.

With the elimination of an at-risk alternative high school, students were offered a virtual school through Wisconsin Virtual School.

One of the hardest hit areas has been the school district’s band and music programs.

“I see 260 kids a week, and it’s pretty impossible to give any kind of individual help,” said Grades 7-12 band teacher Mark Pieplow. “I can’t do the job I need to at the middle school because I don’t have the time. It’s very frustrating.”

For the rest of the article, go to After failed referendum, Rosendale-Brandon Schools move forward

It took an act of the legislature keep the schools open after the lawsuit, and then only after WEAC ally Governor Jim Doyle insisted on a cap on enrollment. Until the cap was lifted recently by the legislature, many parents attempting to take advantage of this educational alternative would find their children put on waiting lists with their educational futures unknown.

Bell claims WEAC, “has been a voice alongside superintendents, school boards, parents and other concerned citizens to shine the light on the need for a better way to fund our schools.”

Notice what Bell did not say. She did not say that their “better way” was always, always, always to ask for more money from the state’s overburdened taxpayers. Bell also didn’t mention how WEAC opposed the limits created by former Governor Tommy Thompson that were placed on school districts in the areas of taxing and teacher compensation to keep property taxes in state from skyrocketing further.

Nor does Bell mention ACT 10, passed by the Republican legislature and signed into law by Governor Scott Walker. Already ACT 10 has allowed school districts across the state to save millions in teachers’ benefits costs. With the recent state budget imposing revenue caps on school districts, taxpayers across the state are seeing the benefits of the savings while school districts are benefiting from the ACT 10 savings offsetting cuts in state aid.

For the rest of the article, go to Defensive WEAC Chief Has Selective Memory