The Carroll County school division wants to create a separate school within its system for its virtual program students, a move that, if allowed, would make it the first stand-alone virtual school in Virginia.
The request is scheduled to come before the Virginia Board of Education for a vote in April, about two months before legislation takes effect directing the board to create statewide regulations establishing Standards for Accreditation of public virtual schools with full-time students.
It would essentially create a policy for what Carroll would like to do.
“Establishing our Virginia Virtual Academy Program as a separate school ensures that this academy and the vendor providing online instructional services will be held to the same high level of expectations and accountability as a traditional brick-and-mortar school,” Carroll’s waiver request states.
To create that stand-alone school, division leaders want exemptions from various standards that traditional brick-and-mortar schools must meet, including school facility and safety provisions.
They also want greater flexibility allocating instructional time per subject area so it’s more flexible to an individual student’s mastery of the curriculum.
Virginia L. McLaughlin, chairwoman of the Virginia Board of Education’s School and Division Accountability Committee, said during a meeting this week about Carroll’s request that “we go into this recognizing that it’s certainly uncharted territory for all of us.”
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