toledoblade.com --

COLUMBUS - Dozens of public school administrators interested in forming their own electronic charter schools met with the Ohio Department of Education yesterday.

Inspired by the four existing electronic schools - three sponsored by northwest Ohio agencies - several superintendents have queried the state about how to set up such schools in their areas, said Steve Burigana, executive director of the education department's office of community schools.

"There were such a large number of questions that we decided to go ahead and have an informational meeting," he said. "We have a lot of these applications in various stages of readiness."

Some school districts intend to open a computer-based school this fall, while others have longer-range plans, Mr. Burigana said.

About 80 public school district officials attended the meeting at the Rhodes Office Tower. Mr. Burigana said 75 to 100 school districts have shown an interest in converting a public school into a charter school or in setting up an "e-school." Ohio has only one charter school that was converted from a public school. It's in Dayton.

Mr. Burigana said attracting more school districts into the charter school program would enhance competition. "There's a perception that [charter] schools and traditional public schools are adversarial in nature. Now they see the program can be used to expand the breadth of their district," he said.

Toledo Public Schools operates one charter school, the Toledo School for the Arts.

Mr. Burigana said school districts also are concerned about losing enrollment to e-schools.

School district officials at the meeting asked questions about what charter schools are allowed to do that public schools can't, how the funding works, and enrollment guidelines.

Charter, or community, schools are public schools but operate free of many of the regulations of traditional public schools.

The University of Toledo Charter School Council sponsors two electronic schools, Ohio Virtual Academy and Ohio Distance & Learning Academy.

The two schools have 900 students enrolled for fall, said Allison Perz, spokeswoman for the council.

"The parents who are calling me are very interested in being fully engaged and in charge of their students' educational endeavors," she said. "This is about choice and this is about competition."

The Lucas County Educational Service Center sponsors the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow, which has about 3,000 students throughout Ohio, Tom Baker, superintendent of the service center, said.

"I think this is the way of the future. I think all schools ought to be taking a look at this," he said. "It meets the needs of some of the parents who, for whatever reason, don't want their kids going to a traditional school.

"I think that anytime a district can come up with any kind of program, whether it's an electronic school or not, it just seems to make good sense," Mr. Baker said.

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