Mantua – At the July meeting of the Crestwood School Board, the Board approved a contract with Virtual Community School (VCS), an online school based in Ohio. Through enrollment in the special program, families who choose online schooling for their students would be supplied with a computer, printer and online instruction aligned with State and common core standards through VCS. VCS would monitor and report students progress back to Crestwood, ensuring that the students meet the appropriate academic requirements.
The agreement is valid for the 2014-2015 academic school year, and will offer online and homeschool students within the Crestwood School District to continue with online instruction while becoming a Crestwood District student. As such, the student would be eligible to participate in the District’s extracurricular activities, and the District would retain some of the per-student instruction funds from State and Federal sources. According to Superintendent David Toth, the ultimate goal, at some point in the future, would be to provide such a program using Crestwood teachers as instructors, an initiative that is part of the current strategic plan.
In other news, the Board approved contracts for the 2014 – 2015 school year with Advanced Rehabilitation, Portage Physical Therapists, and the Stark/Portage Area Computer Consortium (SPARCC) for Internet services. In addition, the Board authorized the Superintendent to implement a Continuous Improvement Plan, based on a summary of findings from this Spring’s Strategic Planning Sessions for the District.
Later, Superintendent Toth and the School Board congratulated Mr. Arden Sommers on his resignation/return to retirement, thanking him for his years of service to the District. Mr. Sommers acknowledged, “It’s been a privilege.” Filling Mr. Sommers position as Principal of Crestwood High School will be Dave McMahon, former Assistant Principal at the High School.
Lastly, the Board set a date for a public hearing on Monday, August 4th at 6:45 pm, to rehire a number of Crestwood retirees. This meeting will be held in the High School Library. The regularly scheduled Board meeting will start immediately following, at 7 pm.
