News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
The Van Buren County Board of Education heard information Wednesday night about adopting a virtual school program.
Director of Schools Jared Copeland said the program could be helpful as enrollment continues to drop. Total enrollment down 40 students this year from last school year. With changes in parent expectations and unknowns from the legislature about school choice, Copeland said a virtual program could be a solution.
“It is my concern that if we don’t at least weigh the options and look at it and maybe have an alternative for our kids I think our trend is going to be that our enrollment continues to go down.”
Copeland said if they entered a partnership to implement a virtual program the school system would lose 95 percent of TISA funding it receives per student. Board Member Barry Austin said he believes a virtual program would be a financial mistake and that many students in the school system would leave in-person classes to do virtual school.
“Essentially you’re losing all the money,” Austin said. “Five percent doesn’t even matter so you’re losing it all and I think if we do this we would lose a large amount of children.”
Copeland said the virtual school program is part of the consideration he would like the board to take as he believes in the future public education will not be the same.
“I really am concerned that I don’t know what public education will look like in ten years,” Copeland said. “I think there is a lot of change coming and I don’t think we all know it. I am not saying that it is necessarily bad or good but I don’t think the way things are now will look like they do ten years down the road and so I just want us to at the very least as a board think about what things might look like and how that’s going to affect us because if we continuing to lose enrollment you know, every kid is really between $8,000 – $15,000 just depending on their services.”
Copeland said if the school system tried to open a virtual program in-house without a partnership it would save a portion of the TISA funding but may not be worth the investment as it would be hard to attract students from other counties to join the program. The board did not vote on the subject and the topic could come up in future board meetings.
In other business, The board approved a revision of the 2025 fiscal year LEAPS Grant. Copeland said the school system is just moving money around to cover expenses.
The board reviewed and approved the LEA Compliance Report.
A cafeteria contract with Richard Hill and associates was approved. Copeland said this is a similar contract that the school system has had before and that there are no changes.
A CareSolace Family and Student Resources contract was approved. The contract is worth a sum of $8,000 and the school system will be reimbursed for it by the county using Opioid Abatement Funds. Copeland said services will provide mental health care to students.
The school board approved to sell CTE property that was damaged and deemed unusable. The board also approved selling a CTE ambulance simulator. Copeland said the school system does not have an EMT program anymore and it is not being used. Copeland said multiple schools have approached him about purchasing it. Copeland said the funds they receive from selling the simulator must go back into the CTE program as the simulator was purchased with grant funding.
