Conestoga Valley School District is moving ahead with a plan to recruit students at private charter schools to attend CV's own charter school.

The move could save the district a significant amount of money.

At its Monday work session, the school board backed a plan to hire a retired elementary school principal to manage the Conestoga Valley Virtual Academy and actively recruit students enrolled in private charter schools.

Thomas Brackbill would oversee the program for up to $15,000 next year. He does a similar job in the Solanco School District.

CV pays more than $8,000 for each district student that enrolls in a private cyber school. But it costs the district only about $3,700 for each student enrolled in the CV Virtual Academy.

For the coming school year, CV expects 75 students to be enrolled in cyber schools, with 18 in the district's own program.

The 57 students in other cyber schools are projected to cost the district $462,325, which CV must pay to the programs.

If the district can recruit more students into its own cyber school, the savings could be significant.

Don Mann, the district's director of secondary education, said that in the three years Brackbill has worked at Solanco, the number of students in private cyber schools has dropped from 81 to 60.

District officials also bemoaned the fact that private charter schools spend heavily on marketing to recruit students, often pitching their programs as "free."

Yet, while parents don't have to pay for the student, their home district — and ultimately the taxpayer — does, they said.

The contract that board members reviewed Monday will be part of the consent agenda at their meeting this coming Monday.

Items on the consent agenda typically are approved all at once, without further discussion.