Virtual pilot approved

Like many rural districts, Jay Schools has been looking for ways to slow its enrollment decline.

Next year, it’ll try offering an online option.

Jay School Board approved a pilot program for a new Jay County Junior-Senior High School Virtual Academy for the 2025-26 school year.

A recommendation on hiring a new Jay County High School football coach was removed from the agenda.

Jay Schools director of digital learning Katie Clark presented the reasoning behind creating a virtual academy and the plans for it moving forward. She told the board that there are currently 128 students who live in the Jay Schools district and are attending online schools. Forty-nine high school students have left the corporation for online options in the last year alone.

With schools receiving about $7,000 per student in state funding, those who are now in other online options account for a loss of nearly $900,000.

Clark said the hope is to keep Jay Schools students in the corporation via the virtual academy and to offer a more robust educational experience than others might provide.

“We want our virtual school to be different,” she said.

Jay Schools will contract with Edumentum’s EdOptions Academy for its virtual curriculum and also plans to have a support structure for students. It will include a success coach who checks in with students weekly, facilitates communication and monitors academic progress, an assistant principal and Clark.

Students enrolled in the virtual academy will have access to IHSAA athletics (they must be on campus for at least one core class daily in order to do so), extracurriculars, special ed accommodations, work-based learning, college and career exploration, financial literacy and technology support. They will be required to go through an onboarding process and participate in in-person required state testing.

Clark laid out a timeline that includes launching a website for the virtual academy in March, beginning to accept applications in April and selecting the pilot group in May. (It will be limited to 100 students, and those who are interested must commit to a full semester.)

Board members had various questions, with Marcie Vormohr expressing concern about the social aspect of school that will be lacking for virtual learners.

“Parents are the ones choosing and they’re already choosing virtual,” said Clark. “And so we’re trying to keep them as tied to us as possible. They’re choosing it anyway, whether we do it or not.”

Chad Towell asked about the overall financial outlook of a virtual academy. Clark indicated that the cost per student for Edmentum is about $1,500 per semester. The school corporation would receive 85% of its regular allocation — about $5,950 — per virtual student.

Board members Ron Laux, Donna Geesman, Chip Phillips, Jon Eads, Aaron Clark, Vormohr and Towell unanimously approved the pilot virtual academy for 2025-26.

Business manager Shannon Current presented information to the board regarding the corporation’s preschool program, noting that it is running a $382,723 deficit. Currently, 20 parents still owe more than $8,000 in preschool fees from the 2023-24 school year. (She suggested updating the preschool fee agreement to require the first month’s fee up front and incentivize parents to pay fees on time.)

Preschool has traditionally been funded through the operations fund, state and federal special education funds and Title I money. She said the funds being used should be directed to other areas, specifically adding that Title I dollars are needed for kindergarten through sixth grade programs.

She said the process is underway to make Jay Schools eligible to accept Child Care Development Fund vouchers, which it has not done previously.

Current gave board members information from other early childhood education providers, including Westminster Preschools Portland, and offered three options for fee increases for the 2025-26 school year in an effort to come closer to balancing the budget. They break down as follows:

Existing fees — $355 for two-day; $480 for three-day; and $630 for five-day

Options A (to match Westminster) — $1,116 for two-day; $1,674 for three-day; and $2,790 for five-day

Option B (mid-point between Westminster and current fees) — $736 for two-day; $1,077 for three-day; and $1,170 for five-day

Option C (half of Westminster fee) — $558 for two-day; $837 for three-day; and $1,395 for five-day

“The goal here is to make a sustainable program that can balance the budget for it,” said Gulley.

Looking ahead to March meetings, Gulley asked board members to expect a special session March 3 at the junior-senior to tour the facility as part of ongoing discussions about a potential capital project and a work session March 31 to discuss project options. The board’s regular meeting is March 17. All of those meetings will begin at 5 p.m.

Gulley said he also expects the hiring of a new football coach to be on the agenda for one of the March meetings. He indicated that the hiring committee requested that the item be pulled from Monday’s agenda to give it more time with the process.

Administrators would not comment further on the football coaching situation because it is a personnel issue.

In other business, the board:

•During the Patriot Pride moment, thanked Jay County resident Larry Eads for raising funds for picnic tables and benches that will be added in the area of the new concession, restroom and locker room building.

•Accepted the resignation of Jerry Bomholt as physical education teacher and basketball coach.

•Approved the following: extracurricular assignments including Brogan Gary as interim boys basketball coach and Jay Houck as boys golf coach; overnight or out-of-state field trips for the FFA livestock, soil judging and officer teams; canceling checks more than two years old; new actions taken in response to the September tornado; and homeschool classes for this summer. 

•Accepted donations of $1,900 for Redkey Elementary School from Dunkirk Kiwanis and $1,000 and $800 from First Bank of Berne for the school swim teams and for benches and tables, respectively.