toledoblade.com --

Perrysburg students soon may have the choice of enrolling in a "digital academy" that would be an online charter school for the district.

John Crecelius, director of curriculum for the school district, has been looking into the digital academy, or "conversion community school," since September.

The school board last week approved a preliminary agreement with the Tri-Rivers Educational Computer Association Digital Academy in Marion, Ohio, for assistance in creating the Perrysburg digital academy. The board is scheduled to discuss on Tuesday a resolution that would establish the school.

As proposed, the digital academy would be sponsored by the board of education and would be available only to students who live in the school district, Mr. Crecelius said. School officials are still sorting out the details on the new academy.

Gov. Bob. Taft last week signed a bill into law that would no longer allow the state Department of Education to sponsor charter schools. Instead, it would decide which groups could sponsor schools, then monitor the sponsors. The law takes effect on April 7. After that, public schools can no longer create their own digital academies, Mr. Crecelius said.

Charter schools are public schools started by parents, teachers, and businesses that operate free of many regulations while receiving state tax dollars.

If Perrysburg wants to proceed with setting up the digital academy, officials have until March 17 to apply for a federal grant to obtain money to help pay start-up costs. To give the Ohio Department of Education time to process the charter documentation for the new digital academy, Perrysburg needs to have plans in place by early March, Mr. Crecelius said.

In addition to the $150,000 federal grant, Perrysburg would apply for a state sub-grant of about $20,000. "We want to try to tap into that," he said.

The new digital academy would have its own board of directors, he said, and TRECA Digital Academy would have a representative on that board. Perrysburg would subcontract through TRECA for computers, printers, scanners, and other equipment, as well as for teachers.

A minimum of 25 students would be needed for the Perrysburg academy. It could attract a variety of students, such as those who take post-secondary option classes and those who might excel online rather than in a traditional school setting.

Heidi Stuff, public relations coordinator for TRECA and TRECA Digital Academy, said students would have to be enrolled full-time. That way, she said, the academy can receive state tax dollars for the full-time students.

With Perrysburg creating a charter school, the students and the state tax dollars would remain in that district rather than going to a charter school in another city, such as in Toledo, Mrs. Stuff said.

TRECA was created as a data acquisition site mainly for schools in Marion, Morrow, and Licking counties, Mrs. Stuff said. TRECA then set up an online charter school and promoted it as a consortium. TRECA Digital Academy, a consortium, supplies teachers and computer equipment to public schools that join it, she said.

Public schools, she explained, sign a three-year contract with TRECA Digital Academy. The first year, TRECA Digital Academy provides the services; the second year, the new school becomes "more of an active player," and then in the third year, "we want it to be its own academy," she said.

Students enrolled in the digital academy are required to take state proficiency tests and follow other state educational guidelines. Students usually attend classes online at their homes, and they have daily contact with teachers who assign homework.

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