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Letter: Virtual government

January 31, 2012 By Leave a Comment

After reading a story in The Topeka Capital-Journal, “Virtual School a Reality,” I had a few thoughts our legislators might consider before jumping in with both feet.

I am in favor of kids having expanded opportunities in the classroom. As a society, we will benefit greatly by raising a well-rounded student. But I am concerned about the social development of a child who spends the majority of his or her educational time one-on-one with a computer and a virtual instructor.

I understand the financial appeal of this option. Reducing the number of buildings, teachers, etc., would be a great savings to the state.

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Charter, virtual school expansion a possibility

January 23, 2012 By Leave a Comment

About 200 virtual school students from across the state will descend Tuesday on the Capitol to earn face time with Kansas government.

The road trip for Maize Virtual Preparatory School’s students won’t be the most unusual feature of the day. The simple fact they will be in the same place is extraordinary for students who seize educational opportunity from a computer screen through a distance education model.

“Most of our learning occurs in the home environment with the virtual assistance of our teaching staff,” said Gary Lewis, director of educational outreach for the Maize school district and champion of the virtual school. “This will be a fun way for our students and families to have some time to get to know one another and have some hands-on learning opportunities.”

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Help pick the five biggest Basehor-area stories of 2011

December 20, 2011 By Leave a Comment
  • Basehor accepts $1 million state grant to extend Wolf Creek Parkway. After the Kansas Department of Transportation in February offered the city $1 million to connect 155th and 158th streets just north of U.S. Highway 24-40, Mayor Terry Hill called the grant a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.” The city council accepted the grant in June by a split vote, leaving the city on the hook for the remaining costs of the project, estimated at about $260,000.
  •  Basehor-Linwood schools bounce back on state assessments, ACT scores. Good news about student performance poured in this fall for the Basehor-Linwood school district, as leaders learned that the district had met the federal Adequate Yearly Progress standard after falling short in 2010, graduating students’ average ACT scores had jumped to reverse a sinking trend and state assessment performances had earned the district an all-time high in Standard of Excellence honors. One indicator that did not provide positive news was the district’s graduation rate, which sunk under a new federal rate formula that administrators said unfairly discounted many students enrolled in the Basehor-Linwood Virtual School.

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School policy to allow staff on Facebook

December 7, 2011 By Leave a Comment

USD-379 will eventually unblock Facebook and other social networking sites on school computers.

The need to unblock these sites was addressed Monday night when a school board member reported on a session she had attended on what the school district could be doing for a virtual school and when the board reviewed a new technology acceptable use policy. This policy covers, among other things, what staff can do on social media sites while on school property and personal use of Facebook and Twitter, including who they can “friend” on Facebook.

Board member Jean Frigon reported that USD-379 students can’t do a lot of things when they take an online course “because we block so much,” including courses through Fort Hays State University.

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Committee sees lots of possibilities for virtual school

November 21, 2011 By Leave a Comment

On Friday the committee will visit the Abilene school district to see how that district runs a virtual school. The committee is planning to visit a few other virtual schools “within a drivable distance” including the one at Manhattan.

“We’re not near ready to make a recommendation, but the committee is really excited,” Frigon said.

She said compared to other school districts in the state, USD-379 is “behind” by not offering a virtual school.

Committee members investigating how to set up a virtual school at USD-379 include a high school student taking virtual classes, teaching and technology staff and a few parents. They’ve met a couple times, Frigon said.

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Letter: Accountable to be Exceptional

November 2, 2011 By Leave a Comment

We will improve the Guidance office services, first step will be to improve structured planning for 9th to 11th grade students because waiting until 11th grade can be too late. We will also look to provide more services for our seniors and help more actively with the application process, including essay review. Understanding where our kids get accepted and what we can do to improve their chances, we will bring in the decision makers from local and not so local colleges and talk to them about acceptance criteria, especially that which is beyond test scores. We will also look more closely at the remediation rate of Radnor students, how many of our graduates have to take remedial classes, before taking freshman year courses, especially in the area of math. Radnor has talked about dual enrollment and leveraging relationships with local universities for more than 10 years, we will drag it over the finish line and put into place a process by which motivated Radnor students are encouraged to take classes at local universities in senior year. This will not only prepare them better for freshman year away from home but will give them credit towards graduation.

Though the items listed above focus on the high school student, we recognize the need to re-evaluate the programs at the elementary and middle school as well. The District needs a forward thinking plan for the use of technology in the classroom. Online text books and virtual learning have demonstrated success and can be a more efficient use of time.

Our team understands that increased accountability throughout our District will lead to better results. We recognize that these initiatives represent necessary change to the status quo so that our District can embrace the challenge of improving upon our educational excellence.

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State assessment scores earn Basehor-Linwood most Standard of Excellence honors ever

October 17, 2011 By Leave a Comment

The Kansas Department of Education announced the Standard of Excellence awards as part of its 2011 Kansas Report Card this week.

Though Basehor-Linwood has shown improvement on state assessments and on ACT scores, it took a big tumble in another component of the state’s report card: graduation rate.

The district’s graduation rate for 2010 tumbled to 72.9 percent under a federally mandated new formula, after the previous year’s rate under the old formula came to 98 percent.

District officials said the number confirmed fears that the new rate formula would hit the district especially hard because of its virtual school.

“When you see something like that, you know that something’s not fitting together,” Boyd said.

The change in Basehor-Linwood’s graduation rate dwarfed the decline in the statewide rate that occurred under the new formula. The Kansas rate fell to 80.7 percent under the new formula, from 89.1 percent for 2009.

In July, the Sentinel reported on Basehor-Linwood Virtual School administrators’ concerns that the new graduation rate formula would sink the district’s rate, largely because of the home-schoolers and other non-traditional students who often enroll in virtual classes. The new rate tracks individual students and measures how many graduate within four years, and students who transfer to become home-schooled or who take longer than four years to graduate can count as “non-graduates.”

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Dickinson County school districts get good news on head count Read more: Abilene Reflector-Chronicle – Dickinson County school districts get good news on head count

September 26, 2011 By Leave a Comment

The district’s Virtual School also reports an enrollment of 28 students and the Parents as Teachers Program has 98 students.

Chapman

Enrollment increased at all but two attendance centers in the Chapman School District and gave U.S. 473 a surge in its K-12 student population.

As of Sept. 20, enrollment was at 1,073 students. The district’s enrollment to finish the school year on May 26 was 984. The enrollment count includes kindergarten students.

U.S.D. 473 superintendent Lacee Sell said the growth was exciting to see.

“This growth speaks volumes of what all of our schools have to offer,” Sell said. “We have great things going on in all classrooms and buildings and thankfully families want their children to take part here.

“Probably the most impressive note about our increased enrollment is that it is occurring district-wide. While we all appreciate and are grateful of the new schools, all schools are gaining students and this is a fantastic achievement for both our district and the entire school community.”

Here is the breakdown and comparison by attendance center: Blue Ridge, 77 on Sept. 20, and 69 on May 26; Enterprise Elementary School, 103 on Sept. 20, and 83 on May 26; Chapman Middle School, 257 on Sept. 20, and 232 on May 26; Chapman High School, 340 on Sept. 20, and 298 on May 26.

Two other attendance centers held steady. Chapman Elementary School had 257 students on Sept. 20 compared to May 26 when 261 students were enrolled. Rural Center School had 39 students on Sept. 20 compared to 41 on May 26.

Solomon

U.S.D. 393 had higher enrollment numbers than originally projected, but they were still slightly less than last year.

There are a total of 354 students enrolled at Solomon this year with 172 students in elementary and 182 in middle and high school.

“We do have large numbers [of children] in the Solomon Community Preschool, so the future outlook is bright,” school superintendent Jim Runge said. “Families continue to move to our district because of the outstanding educational opportunities from preschool through Cloud Community College outreach campus – a full pre-kindergarten through community college experience.”

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Dickinson County school districts get good news on head count

September 25, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Shafer said the district experienced a higher than expected enrollment of kindergarten students at Kennedy Elementary School and fifth grade students at Garfield Elementary School.

A preliminary count shows 500 students at Abilene High School, 386 at Abilene Middle School, 400 students at Kennedy Elementary, 233 students at McKinley Elementary has 233 and 252 students at Garfield Elementary.

The district’s Virtual School also reports an enrollment of 28 students and the Parents as Teachers Program has 98 students.

Read more: Abilene Reflector-Chronicle – Dickinson County school districts get good news on head count

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Teen Excels in School Thanks to Online Classes

September 13, 2011 By Leave a Comment

A Kansas City, Kan. teen says she was bullied and harassed so much that she was about to drop out of school. She didn’t have to thanks to a program that is letting her finish her education at home. She can now complete her classes through an online high school.

Lura Matthues says there were days the bullying and harassment was so intense she would call her mom to come get her. She ended up failing the 10th grade. Now she is back on track. Instead of going to school, Mattuhes just boots up her computer and starts here Lawrence Virtual School that offers K-12 online coursework.

“I have one teacher that calls me almost every day to make sure I’m on track,” Matthues said.

Matthues fell behind at JC Harmon High school after girls were bullying her.

“The girl and her sister started picking on me,” she said. “Her sister got up in my face at school and I was almost in tears.”

She says it felt like no one in the school could help her.

“I went  to the principal and things cooled down for a couple days but then started back up,” she said.

Matthues stepdad says the online school has made a huge difference.

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