Hermitage school directors OK’d a plan Tuesday that puts the district ahead of an Internet learning curve while lessening the impact that losing students to charter schools could have on the district’s future finances.

"The best defense is a good offense," Mastrian said regarding the establishment of a Midwestern Intermediate Unit IV cyber charter school. The intermediate unit, based in Grove City, is made up of 27 school districts in Mercer, Lawrence and Butler counties.

The cyber charter school, scheduled to open in the fall, is designed for homebound students and those who cannot learn in a traditional classroom because of behavioral, psychological or other reasons.

However, any district student -- and, theoretically, all of them -- could attend the intermediate unit’s cyber charter school or any other charter school on the district’s tab.

The state has two cyber charter schools, according to board member James D. Lumpp, who recently attended a state conference on the schools.

A school based in Midland has 400 students and the other in the Berwick-Bloomsburg-Milton region has 90, Lumpp said. Norristown is expecting 1,500 students at its proposed school, Lumpp said. Norristown is combating an exodus of its students to other charter schools, which cost the district $800,000 last year, Lumpp said. "It wiped out their general fund," Lumpp said.

The intermediate unit projects enrollment at its school will be more than 500 within five years.

The intermediate unit has received a $20,000 start-up grant for the school from the state Department of Education. Tuition would be about $6,000 a year, but intermediate schools would pay about half that cost if their students attended the school, said Superintendent Dr. Louis C. Mastrian. Costs to local districts can be $6,000 or more at other charter schools, Mastrian added.

Students would receive their own computer and complete 900 hours a year at the elementary level and 990 at the secondary level. They would be required to take two in-person assessment tests throughout the year. The curriculum would be "basically the same," Mastrian said.

Students attending the intermediate unit’s cyber school would earn a diploma from the cyber school, but likely would be able to participate in Hermitage extracurricular activities, Mastrian said.