Concerns about declining enrollment and the cost of cyber charter schools were raised last week by members of the Pleasant Valley School Board and the public.

The school district put on its website a plea to the public to ask lawmakers to support reform of cyber charter school funding.

As stated on the district’s website, “Each year, school districts spend millions of dollars in taxpayer money for mandatory payments to brick-and-mortar and cyber-charter schools. Please join Pleasant Valley School District’s efforts to change the existing flawed funding formulas.”

In 1997, the Charter School Law was enacted to give parents greater school choice. The law required school districts to pay charter schools for every student from their district attending the charter school. That is still the case even for cyber charter schools, which proponents of reform say do not have as many costs as brick-and-mortar schools.

16 charter schools

School board President Donna Yozwiak said, “I was trying to get my head around the amount of astronomical money that we as a district are spending on our 16 different cyber charter schools.

The school district has 767 students in outside cyber charter schools.

Yozwiak said she met with Tammy Smale, the assistant business manager, to get an explanation of how the money is disbursed to the charter schools.

“I was shocked beyond belief to determine that in the month of December, one out of the 16 cyber charter schools received $2.5 million from us. That was for one month,” she said.

Superintendent Lee Lesisko explained that the school district pays $16,000 to charter schools to educate one student. The cost to educate a child in a special education program increases to about $36,000. With 767 students in cyber charter schools, the district will pay out a minimum of $12.3 million. It will be higher if any of the students are in special education programs.

Yozwiak said, “This is a significant, significant financial loss, and we as a board have to be fiscally responsible.”

Enrollment

According to the enrollment reports, the number of students attending classes in the district’s buildings dropped by 1,013 students from September 2019 to September 2020. That number has continued to drop during the school year with another 414 students leaving for other programs. Many students have moved to the districts cyber academy, which grew from 122 in September 2019 to 812 this month. But growth in the cyber charter schools continues to rival the district’s program.

In September 2019, there were 121 students in a cyber charter school and 50 in a brick-and-mortar charter school for a total of 171. Today, there are 767 students in cyber charter schools and none in brick-and-mortar charter schools.

Since December, the school district’s classrooms have lost 10 students, as well as the cyber academy losing 10 students.

The cyber charter schools have gained 25 students in a month.

Charter isn’t the only option. There are also private schools, home schools, Monroe Career and Technical Institute, Intermediate Unit and out-of-district placements.

Private schools and home school gained one student each, but the IU and out-of-district placement lost a total of 6 students. The school district does not reimburse private schools and home schools for the cost to educate.

“No matter how we look at it, this number is going to fluctuate one way or another,” Lesisko said. “We hope that the vaccine will give people confidence knowing that we can move forward.”

Alice Wheelis of Ross Township, a parent of a student in a cyber charter school, said she tried the school district’s cyber academy, but found it to be inadequate. That’s why she switched her child to a cyber charter school.

“How are you going to get these parents, including myself, to bring my child back to PV if you can’t even show me what you are going to bring as a cyber program? I’m not going to bring my child back to Pleasant Valley or my two twins that are going into kindergarten until I know you guys are going to give them the education they deserve and that we pay for as taxpayers,” she said.

Lesisko said improvements have been made in the hybrid program, which is now synchronous. This means students and teachers are in the same place at the same time via online meeting services. Improvements are coming to the cyber academy as well. The district will continue to use the self-paced instruction model provided by VLN Partners LLP for the cyber academy, but will include the school district’s own teachers to work with students.