Charter School Group Will Appeal Decisions of School Districts That Vote it Down

Anyone hoping that Monday night’s Board of Education votes to reject a virtual charter school proposal would be the end of the contentious issue should guess again.

The president of the nonprofit organization that is pitching plans for a virtual charter school drawing students from 18 school school districts said the nonprofit would appeal Monday’s unanimous votes by the Geneva School District 304 Board of Education and the St. Charles Community Unit School District 303 Board of Education.

Batavia School District 101 has called a special meeting at 6 p.m. Tuesday to make its opinions known.

Virtual Learning Solutions President Sharnell Jackson, in response to an email St. Charles Patch sent late Monday asking for reaction, wrote, “Virtual Learning Solutions will appeal to the Illinois State Charter Commission.”

Virtual Learning Systems hopes to draw $8,800 per student from St. Charles Community Unit School District 303 students who choose the virtual charter school. But the Board of Education soundly rejected the plan as noncompliant with state law and saying it would not serve the best interests of the students for which it was designed.

Virtual Learning Solutions is a nonprofit group that had formed to create the charter school, but which intends to contract with K12 to educate the students. K12 is the nation’s largest virtual school company, operating 48 full-time virtual schools as of July 2012.

The plan has met with opposition in several communities, where critics have taken issue with K12 as a business that would be profiting on tax dollars. Other questions and criticisms raised about K12 have ranged from student achievement concerns to investigations of the company in other states.