News

Virtual school to hold open house

March 19, 2008

Organizers of South Carolina's first online "charter school" will hold its inaugural get-acquainted session Thursday at the State Museum on Gervais Street in Columbia.

Dubbed the "South Carolina Virtual Charter School," plans call for instruction to be offered for children from kindergarten through grade 12 starting this August.

Thursday's event in the museum's Vista Room starts at 11 a.m. and will be among a series to be held around the state in the coming weeks.

Participants can meet school board members, administrators and teachers, who will put on a demonstration and answer questions about how the online instruction works.

State-certified teachers will work with the students and parents "to help meet the students' individual learning needs," a charter school spokeswoman said.

Students who enroll in the virtual charter school will be expected to meet the same academic and attendance requirements that other public school students do, and they also will be required to take all standardized tests, the spokeswoman noted. Charter school officials have set a goal of enrolling 1,000 students for the 2008-09 academic year.

There is no cost to enroll in the virtual charter school because it is a public school. More information is available at www.k12.com/sc.

The State