PAVCS Newsroom

At a time when schools across Pennsylvania are digging out from a week's pelting of snow and the multiple delays and closings associated with it, the Pennsylvania Virtual Charter School continued its regular class schedule. While most schools would like to have the option of continuing operations during unfavorable weather conditions, I am sure there were PAVCS students who wondered why they had school when their neighbors did not.

We started thinking about what could cause such a commotion at this PA cyber charter school and major technology issues were the biggest concern. So we decided to ask our community "One Simple Question" to find out where they turn when they have a technology issue.

The answers were fairly predictable (especially since it was multiple choice with "other" as an option) and we found that most in our community turn to the PAVCS Helpline, a school-provided resource for these issues. Family Support Coordinators - the PAVCS non-academic support professionals - were the second most popular location of technology assistance. We found that students, teachers and family members were also popular choices, as well as searching web sites for assistance. Two brave souls even stated they work hard to fix all of their technology concerns themselves.

The top ten places the PAVCS community turns for technology assistance are listed below:

1. PAVCS Technology Helpline, 36.94%
2. Family Support Coordinator, 21.49%
3. Parent, 14.03%
4. Student, 6.04%
5. Friend, 5.86%
6. Web Searches, 5.15%
7. PAVCS Curriculum Provider K¹² Inc., 3.91%
8. PAVCS Administration Office, 2.13%
9. Family, 1.60%
10. Teacher, 0.89%

While it may seem like just yesterday (actually it was about a month ago officially) that Pennsylvania ended its budget process, Governor Edward Rendell recently stood before the State Legislature and proposed a $29 billion spending plan that would once again increase educational funding throughout the commonwealth. The $354.8 million increase in the state's basic education funding is designed so that every student in every school has the necessary resources to learn.

The increases proposed in the state budget are designed to decrease inequities funding throughout the state so children in any area can have access to similar educational opportunities. It should be pretty easy to figure out where a cyber charter school that serves the entire state would fall in regards to support for that issue.

The budget proposal also calls for $4.5 million for online model curriculum, including research-proven instructional strategies and lesson plans.

When the weather gets colder and outdoor activities more often than not involve shovels, the Pennsylvania Virtual Charter School looks for ways to bring socialization and service learning indoors. One of the most popular activities in our community is bowling, so PAVCS created a Bowl-a-thon as a service learning program. Students from around the state are helping strike out pediatric illnesses by bowling a few frames and helping raise money for the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.

Held throughout the state at 19 locations, students (and school mascot Super Squirrel) were able to get some exercise, meet up with their friends and help out a good cause. There are still a good number of bowl-a-thon events to come that will benefit the students and community.