Sullivan school officials approve online curriculum bid

BLOUNTVILLE — Sullivan County Schools officials are pushing forward with the school system's new online offering, voting 7-0 Wednesday evening in a called meeting to approve an online curriculum bid from Pearson.The unanimous vote came after a presentation from Director of Schools Chuck Carter, requesting the board accept the low bid from Pearson for $2,899 per student up to 100 students. The online program was included in the 2024-25 budget, part of an effort to implement online learning, blending learning that combines the two and alternative school instruction for students with disciplinary issues."We have 50 (official online students) currently," Carter told the board at the called meeting. It came after a closed-door executive session on present or pending litigation with school board attorney Chris McCarty of Knoxville and was followed by a boardsmanship training session on education law McCarty provided to the board.DOLLARS MAKE SENSECarter said school officials are excited that the new online program, an effort to attract new students or regain lost students, is financially advantageous to the school system under the new TISA funding, which is short for Tennessee Investment in Student Achievement. It replaced the old BEP or Basic Education Program funding formula."TISA will give us $7,075 for the base" annual amount in state funding for each student, Carter said. However, he said the average Tennessee payment for students is about $9,000 to $10,000 a year. Extra funding comes from things such as students enrolled in career technical education courses, as well as special needs students and those from lower socio-economic backgrounds.In addition, academic performance also eventually factors into the TISA-provided funding."We're banking on also improving our city-county split so we don't lose as many students," Carter said of a state tax funding that is split among all four systems serving Sullivan County students based on their share of the student "pie." These are the state-mandated county system, Kingsport, Bristol and a few served by Johnson City, which has annexed into Sullivan County.Board member Angie Stanley of Colonial Heights asked about what schools the online students are credited, and Carter responded it would be to the zone in which they lived if they were in-county students and that participation in athletics would be based on the home school.Vice Chairman Michael Hughes of Bluff City then made the motion to approve the Carter recommendation, seconded by Mark Vicars of Kingsport. The others who voted for it were Todd McKinley of Bloomingdale, Chairman Matt Price, Paul Robinson of Bloomingdale and Dr. Mary Rouse of the Bristol area.MORE MONEY DETAILS"We're going to run out of money, aren't we?" Hughes asked Carter of the first year funding of $150,000 for the program being almost all absorbed by $144,950 it will take to serve 50 students in the program, not counting those on a waiting list.Carter said the plan is not to increase the number past 50 this school year, at least until January, to allow the school system to get the program going and not be overwhelmed by the work required to run the online program."We have some kids on the waiting list," Carter said. Vicars said the cost per student decreases to $2,530 a year if more than 100 students are served. That's a savings of $339 per student or 12%, Hughes said.With Wednesday's approval, Carter said the plan is for staff training next week to get the program rolling. "We want to get them on there ASAP," Carter said. He said the contract can be extended forward or canceled if it doesn't work out.At some point he said the system will need to hire more staff to operate online, but he said it would be financially beneficial since each gained or retained student online generates more funding that the online program costs the system.For now, Carter said the alternative school staff is doing the paperwork for the online school, including checking up on online students to be sure the students are progressing academically.