Online explosion takes hold in Ripon schools

The Modesto Bee

Feb. 4

California Connections Academy @ Ripon will open as a public charter school in the fall, becoming the latest in an exploding array of online options in the area.

It will join this year’s online startups — Turlock Unified’s eCademy Charter at Crane and Modesto City School’s Modesto Virtual Academy — as well as current district online programs and at least a dozen independent charters.

Online schools have, it appears, gone viral.

The Ripon charter was granted by Ripon Unified School District in January; the school will serve kindergartners through graduating seniors.
Though its home district is in San Joaquin County, it is eligible to sign up students from all adjacent counties as well: Alameda, Amador, Calaveras, Contra Costa, Sacramento, Santa Clara and Stanislaus.

Ripon Unified Superintendent Louise Johnson said the district did its homework before granting the charter and sees it as partnering with the online group. The district will provide some arm’s-length oversight, but the charter school will manage its own finances and answer to its own board of directors.

“We were very favorably impressed,” Johnson said. “The program is quite interesting because they have a mix,” she said, listing online webcasts, real-time classes in which students interact with the with the teacher and classmates, and traditional work.

http://www.modbee.com/2012/02/04/2056044/online-explosion-takes-in-ripon.html