The State Board of Education on Wednesday voted 5-1 to approve a new online school that will be operated by K12 Inc., a for-profit education company whose operation of another online school has been controversial.
The new College Prep Online Academy of Colorado will be overseen by the Colorado Digital Board of Cooperative Education Services, which consists of the Falcon School District near Colorado Springs and the Yuma district on the eastern plains. The new BOCES is in negotiations with Pikes Peak Community College for that institution to join the organization.
College Prep has contracted with K12 Inc. to operate the school, providing curriculum and teachers. K12 Inc. has been the operator of the troubled Colorado Virtual Academy, a charter school authorized by the Adams 12-Five Star district. The district has had concerns about the performance of COVA students but recently renewed the school’s charter for one year, with the understanding that Adams 12 would not authorize the charter after that. COVA also is renegotiating its relationship with K12 Inc.
The relationship between College Prep and K12 drew repeated questions from board member Elaine Gantz Berman of Denver, who ultimately was the only “no” vote.
“Why did you choose a vendor that has such a bad track record?” she asked.
Officials of the Digital BOCES defended their choice, saying they needed a vendor with the resources to get College Prep up and running by next fall. They also stressed that they will keep a close eye on K12.
“Where there has been strong governance, independent governance, K12 tools work very well,” said Rob Stannard, Yuma superintendent and president of the Digital BOCES board. He added that K12 has had problems when it hasn’t had strong oversight.
“It is not always about the vendor … it has a great deal to do with oversight,” agreed Peter Hilts, BOCES board vice president and a Falcon administrator.
Both said they feel K12 has a “mixed” record.
More SBE action
“We have a one-year contract with them. They either do it or they don’t,” said, Kim McClelland, interim executive director of College Prep. She also is a top administrator in Falcon. She said the district has successfully used K12 curriculum for its own online program.
Unlike COVA, Colorado Prep will not be a charter school but rather a school directly overseen by the BOCES, whose board includes representatives from the participating districts.
BOCES traditionally are organizations created by groups of neighboring school districts to provide shared services, such as special education programs. The Digital BOCES is a new wrinkle.
The new school plans to open in the fall, and McClelland said it is budgeted for 800 students next year. There has been speculation that Colorado Prep might draw COVA students. If it enrolls more than 50 percent of COVA students, Colorado Prep would inherit COVA’s state rating, which is priority improvement, the second-lowest level.
Colorado currently has 56 certified online schools or programs of five different kinds – multi-district online charters, multi-district schools run by districts, single-district schools, single-district online programs (as opposed to full schools) and supplemental online programs.
Some 17,289 students were enrolled in online schools in the 2012-13 school year, 39 percent of those students eligible for free- or reduced-price lunch.
The largest are COVA with 4,602 students; Hope Online Learning Academy with 3,079 students (chartered by the Douglas County Schools); GOAL Academy with 2,590 students (chartered by the Charter School Institute but transferring to the Falcon district), and Colorado Connections Academy with 1,534 students (not a charter, overseen by the Mapleton Schools). Total enrollment in those four programs is 11,805, 68 percent of the statewide total.
Here are accreditation ratings of the four programs:
- COVA – Priority improvement
- Hope Online – Priority improvement
- GOAL – Priority improvement
- Colorado Connections – Improvement
Get more information on Colorado online schools here.
BEST finalists jump another hurdle
The state board approved the recommended list of 2013-14 grants from the Building Excellent Schools Today construction program.
The grants include $98.6 million in total costs for six large projects that are to be financed by lease-purchase agreements. Those include $64.1 million in state funds and $30.5 million in local matches, and the projects include new PK-12 or K-12 schools in six small districts: Creede, Kim, Limon, Moffat 2, Haxtun and South Conejos.
Also approved were two alternate projects worth $47.6 million for a new middle school in Fort Morgan and a new building for the Ross Montessori Charter in Carbondale. Either or both of those projects will be considered funding in November if any of the finalists forfeit their state grants because bond issue elections fail and those districts therefore don’t raise their local matches.
The board also approved $15.7 million in 24 cash-grant projects that will be used for roof replacements, new boilers, security upgrades and similar renovations. That group includes $9 million in state funds and $6.6 million in local matches.
The two lists were submitted to the board by the state Capital Construction Assistance Board. The lease-purchase projects are subject to final review June 19 by the legislative Capital Development Committee.
See the full lists and descriptions of lease-purchase projects here and the cash projects here.
Counselor Corps, literacy grants awarded
In other action Wednesday, the board approved $464,000 in grants to 14 districts and schools from the Colorado Counselor Corps program.
The program allows schools to hire additional counselors and otherwise update counseling services in order to improve graduation rates and other measures of student achievement. The program started in 2008-09. Individual schools receive grants for three years. According to the Department of Education, 85 percent of participating schools have retained their additional counselors after grant money ran out.
According to a report presented to the board, the 76 secondary schools that received grants in 2011-12 improved their graduation rates by 4.2 percent overall, reduced dropout rates by 1.2 percent and improved the overall counselor-to-student ratio from 363:1 to 261:1.
The board also awarded the first set of grants under the 2012 READ Act, the law that requires schools to improve literacy skills of K-3 students so that students are reading at grade level when they enter the fourth grade. The law allows lagging third graders to be held back in some cases and goes into effect for districts next school year.
In addition to $15.3 million in formula-based funding for all districts, the law also created a competitive grant program. Sixteen of the 21 districts that applied were awarded grants totaling $4 million. (See the full list.)