Board member Misty Moore raised questions about the expenses for the Virtual Academy during the Committee of the Whole meeting Monday evening.

During Monday’s Warren County School District committee meeting, board members heard the Virtual Academy program has contract renewal and several new proposals totaling upward of $280,000.

Lynn Shultz, Director of Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment, said the two renewals are with Learning A to Z at a cost of $896 as well as with Accelerate education at $227,320. The new contracts for Explore Learning are quoted at $6,412 and Subject Technologies for $5,000. Shultz said a pilot program with School AI was tested with positive feedback from teachers and a quote of $41,512 for a three-year agreement. Another new contract with Brisk AI quoted for $6,000.

Board member Misty Moore raised the question of the number of students the district services in and outside of the district who use the Virtual Academy as well as the number of staff. After Moore asked for a detailed report, Superintendent Gary Weber agreed to put one together while mentioning that a presentation had been shown in the past, before the new board members began. Weber said, “The amount of revenue that the outside brings in, offsets a lot of the cost from the internal.” Weber also said that the cooperative agreement with other schools allows more electives to be offered.

Supervisor of Secondary Education Elizabeth Kent mentioned that there could be AP courses offered through the Virtual Academy program. Board member John Wortman commented that he thought that the Virtual Academy is one of the highlights of the district, pointing out that it creates partnerships with other districts across the commonwealth and helps to operate WCSD.

Additionally, the school board was asked to approve a new agreement for Virtual Academy with an outside school district.

Kent also presented information for the Consumer Science department with a quote of $37,281 for textbooks that support instruction in the consumer science courses in Foods, Baking, Child Development, Parenting, and Home and Interiors.

Multiple elective courses require the need for new equipment. A quote of nearly $70,000 for 150 sewing machines was presented and raised questions by the board as well as the public. These machines would support the Family and Consumer Science curriculum at five schools to include Beaty Middle School, Eisenhower Middle High School, Sheffield Elementary School, Warren High School and Youngsville Elementary Middle School.

With the last purchase being 10 or more years ago, with high usage and often costly end of year repairs, the particular machines quoted have features that offer longevity and ease of use in the classroom.

The next regular school board meeting will be on Monday, June 8 and the next committee of the whole meeting will be Monday June 22, both at the Central Office in Russell at 6 p.m.