Return to Archives
Pulaski County School Board
Innovation coming to PC school system?
Jeremy Norman, News Editor
03-01-2010
The Pulaski County School Board listened to two presentations at their Thursday night meeting that could bring new levels of innovation to the Pulaski County school system.
One program, K12, promises to open an additional stream of revenue for the school system while the other program, Subfinder, promises to streamline an expensive and time-consuming process.
K12 Education, based out of Herndon, Va., looks to partner with Pulaski County schools to recapture a portion of the county's home schooled population. The program, which currently serves over 70,000 students throughout 26 states, offers free courses for home schooled students to take from their home or wherever an internet connection can be found. The students are connected to their teachers and school administration through phone, e-mail, online meetings, field trips, and face-to-face meetings. While courses are delivered online, the program provides plenty of opportunities to connect
online and offline with the school community.
"It serves as a viable option for those students who are suspended, home bound for medical reasons, or are home bound for other reasons," explained Kenny Word, K12 representative.
The K12 program provides the services and curriculum to the school system while providing books and materials to the students. The curriculum is designed for students to embrace 21st century skills, according to Word.
The program would provide additional revenue for the school system due to surplus funding. K12 costs approximately $3,940 per student, while Pulaski County receives $5,943 per student in funding. The result is a net gain of around $2,000 per student.
According to Interim Superintendent Dr. Thomas Brewster, Pulaski County currently has between 70 and 80 families with home schooled children.
The students would be technically enrolled in the Pulaski County school system, and would therefore be able to participate in any extracurricular activities the district has to offer. The schools would also be responsible for issuing Standards of Learning (SOL) tests to students participating in the program.
The current success rate for K12 students is around 80 percent, according to Word.
The second program presented to the School Board was Subfinder, an automated substitute teacher sorting and locating system that promises to give the school district more control and accountability over the placement of substitute teachers.
The program would allow for the school system to place all of their potential substitute teachers into a database, as well as rank said substitutes in order of preference. Once a teacher announces an absence in the Subfinder system, the program will then go through the database and match the vacancy with an appropriate substitute. Subfinder then uses an automated phone system to contact the potential substitute teachers.
The program boasts 24/7 technical support as well as the ability to match substitutes with specific skills. It also allows for the school to place specific substitutes on an exclusion list.
Subfinder guarantees the best available substitute teacher will be used, according to the presentation.
Currently, school administrators and individual teachers are responsible for locating and assigning substitutes.
"This system has the potential to save us a considerable amount of the $400,000 we spend in substitutes," according to Board member Dr. Rodell Cruise.
Roanoke City schools currently use the system and are quoted as saying that they "get the better subs quicker."
Not everyone present at the meeting was as enthusiastic about the two programs presented.
Citizen Angela Clevinger stated to the board that "I don't think we have a nickel to spare," in regard to the Subfinder's $5,100 annual price tag.
Clevinger also took issue with the K12 program.
"We (Pulaski County) would be taking on the responsibility of the SOL scores (of the students in the K12 program) when we had no hand in the scores."
The Board will take time to review both programs in depth before deciding if either will be implemented.
