Center Grove High School presented a pilot Center Grove Virtual Campus and told the school board it hopes to enroll a first cohort in August for the 2025-26 school year.

The pilot aims to offer a teacher-led online program that awards a Center Grove High School diploma and gives enrollment priority to students who left the district; board members discussed eligibility, co-curricular participation limits, and the program’s capacity constraints.

Tracy McMahon, principal of the high school, said research showed 132 students left Center Grove High School between 2022 and 2024 and that the district used that data to define a target population. “We discovered is that students who are leaving us...are more likely to be a student of color. They are less likely to have an IEP. They are more likely to have a health indicator,” McMahon said, listing conditions such as ADHD, anxiety and depression. She said the average GPA for those students was about 1.6 and that 41 percent were deficient in credits.

McMahon described the planned program structure: it will be taught by Center Grove High School teachers using the same curriculum as in-person classes (with a narrowed pilot curriculum initially), include a dedicated counselor and a program coordinator drawn from existing administrative positions, and require a semester commitment from students. “It is teacher paced,” McMahon said, explaining the rationale for the semester commitment so teachers can monitor progress and provide timely feedback and office hours.

Board members asked how the program differs from the Simon Youth Academy program. McMahon said Simon Youth is student-paced, uses the Plato platform, serves primarily juniors and seniors and requires in-person attendance at set times; by contrast, the Center Grove Virtual Campus would serve grades 9–12, include teacher-led pacing, have no job or C9 requirement and would not be limited to juniors and seniors.

The program will not allow participation in IHSAA athletics or in co-curricular courses such as band or choir because the pilot will not offer the coursework tied to those activities; McMahon said students can attend C9 and participate in state-mandated testing in person. The district will prioritize applications from students who left the corporation (for homeschool or virtual programs) and, if space remains, accept current Center Grove students. McMahon said the district expects to start outreach to families who left and to finalize staffing once applications indicate enrollment levels.

Board members raised scaling questions; McMahon said Indiana requires a virtual program to become a separate school when enrollment exceeds 99 students, creating separate school numbers, diplomas and testing. “If we go above 99, it would have to be Grove Virtual School, its own school, its own diploma, its own school number, its own testing,” she said, and added, “We are not going to go above 99,” indicating the intent to keep the pilot below that threshold.

Board discussion also touched on costs. Dr. Taylor (administrative staff) said the district planned to fund the pilot with internal sources and anticipated that returning students (and the associated ADM revenue) would offset many costs.

The board did not take a separate formal vote on the program at the meeting; McMahon asked for questions and the board discussed timing and implementation. McMahon said the target start date is August for the 2025-26 school year and that applications and marketing materials are ready to send to families who have left the district.

The presentation combined program design, eligibility rules, operational constraints and next steps; the board will consider staffing and enrollment numbers as applications arrive.