Schools

Charter School Plan to Go Before Plainfield Board

A virtual charter school accused of asking teachers to delete bad grades wants to come to Plainfield; a public hearing on the proposal is set for March 18.

Editor's note: Updated at 1 p.m. March 13 to include K12's response to the accusations.

A company that wants to bring a virtual charter school to Plainfield will go before the District 202 school board next month, but a public hearing on the proposal is set for March 18.

K12, a for-profit charter school company, is the subject of controversy after Nashville-based NBC report published emails from one of its vice principals urging teachers to delete failing grades.

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Now, the same company is proposing to start an online charter school called Virtual Learning Solutions in Plainfield.

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A public hearing on the plan is set for 8:30 p.m. Monday, March 18, during the District 202 Board of Education meeting at the administration center, 15732 S. Howard St., said Director of Community Relations Tom Hernandez.

Board member Rod Westfall said the district only recently learned of K12’s interest in coming to Plainfield.

“It’s very preliminary. [The district has] been approached by this charter school about possibly having one in Plainfield,” Westfall said, stressing, “We haven’t approved anything.”

Westfall said board members are scheduled to get more information on the proposal prior to Monday’s board meeting.

According to Hernandez, the charter school will come before the board for a vote at its April 15 meeting.

The NBC-5 report alleges that staff one of the company’s Nashville-area schools, Tennessee Virtual Academy, urged teachers to delete failing progress reports from September and October, writing, “After ... looking at so many failing grades, we need to make some changes before the holiday.” The email goes on to ask teachers to “delete it so that all that is showing is November progress."

Read: Virtual Charter School Controversy: Report Says K12 Teachers Asked to Delete Bad Grades

K12 also has its sights set on several other Chicago-area communities, with proposals to start virtual charter schools in districts including Valley View School District, Oswego School District 308 and Naperville School District 203.

Randall Greenway, K12's vice president of School Development, said Tuesday afternoon that the story was inaccurate and contained a number of false claims.

"It was quickly and completely debunked by the school and its teachers," he said. "One of the TNVA teachers, speaking on behalf of her fellow teachers at the school, responded in the media" via this article in the Knoxville News Sentinel

The teachers also spoke before the Tennessee legislature and "directly countered these false claims," Greenway said.

You can read a full response from TNVA administrators here.

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