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SCSC executive director urges Fayette County to allow K'3 in virtual program, cites $1,950 price and enrollment losses
Summary
Mr. Butcher, SCSC executive director, told the Fayette County Schools board that the SCSC virtual school provides daily live instruction and urged the board to include K'3 in the county's virtual policy to avoid continued loss of students and state funding; he cited a price of $1,950 per student and said the county lost over $500,000 last year to other virtual providers.
Mr. Butcher, introduced as the SCSC executive director, presented the virtual school program and encouraged the Fayette County Schools board to revise its virtual-school policy to permit K'3 enrollment.
Butcher described the SCSC program as providing synchronous, live instruction every weekday with West Virginia-certified teachers and said that the state department of education recently signaled it will support K'3 only when programs are synchronous. He said the SCSC reduced its per-student price to $1,950 for a full year to be competitive and asserted the county has lost "over $500,000" in one year to two other virtual/charter options.
"When we went to the state department, we brought this up...they saw what we had, and they're like, 'You know what? We're going to change our direction on this,'" Butcher said, urging the board to consider allowing younger students to enroll so the district does not continue to lose students and associated state aid.
Board members followed with questions about transcript and recordkeeping for credits earned in virtual courses; Butcher and staff said students remain Fayette County students, credits are housed in WEAS and managed by district staff (Roberta), and graduate credits can be assigned to the student's home high school depending on residency and school assignment. Members also asked for follow-up materials and noted interest in a future SCSC update scheduled for September 17.
Several board members praised the program's quality, cited concerns about losing students to out-of-district virtual options, and asked staff to review the district policy to allow K'3 enrollment and present more data at a later meeting.
