Online charter school's price tag hits $1.5 million for 150 students

If OK'd by the LCSD1 trustess, the laramie 1 online academy will cost approximately $9,901 per student; the students receive laptops.

By Becky Orr
borr@wyomingnews.com

CHEYENNE -- It would cost about $9,901 per student to operate an online K-12 charter school here in fiscal year 2009.

The projected cost is included in an application for the Laramie 1 Online Academy.

The application's budget notes that expenses are projected at $990,175 in 2009 for a charter school with 100 students and at about $1.5 million for a school with 150 students.

There are no minimum enrollment requirements for the proposed school. But the application says the academy would provide a charter model for up to 150 students starting with the 2009 school year.

Money would come from the state's funding system.

A charter is a public school that has some freedom in the curriculum it uses. The state would double fund the school in its first year. The extra money would help pay start-up costs, said LCSD1 Superintendent Ted Adams.

Laramie County School District 1 trustees received the application on Monday. They will decide whether to approve or reject the application.

Each student at the virtual school would be loaned a laptop computer.

Internet hook-ups would be provided free at their homes.

The school could reach students in LCSD1 who are home-schooled and those who move frequently, Adams said.

More than 400 students who live in LCSD1 are registered as home-school pupils. Adams said it is almost irresponsible not to consider such a proposal given the large population that isn't served.

The virtual academy also would enroll about 25 students who live in LCSD1 but now attend an online school offered from Gillette.

The online charter would help the district guarantee a high-quality education to each child, Adams said.

Students would have verbal contact with a teacher at least once a week, Adams said.

They also would have a lot of contact over the Internet with the teachers.

Expenses outlined in the proposal are based on those of a virtual charter school formed in Gillette, Adams said.

The proposal would make the home-schooled students part of LCSD1, Adams said. The school would use the K12 Inc. curriculum.

Its employees would be covered as LCSD1 workers.

Bonnie Bartholomew and her husband, Skip, have two children enrolled in the virtual school out of Gillette. She supports the proposed school and said it will help home-schooled children.

"I think it will help the parents out," she said, adding it would give them more support. "I can't see a negative."