A York company is seeking state approval to start a cybercharter school that would include a satellite hub in Lancaster city.
Urban Cyber Charter School has applied to the state Department of Education to open a school next fall catering to "the specific needs of the urban population," according to its application.
The school would be managed by 3Cord Inc., a company that runs three "bricks-and-mortar" alternative education and charter schools in York.
Urban Cyber Charter would provide online instruction for students in grades six through 12, along with tutoring and networking services at regional YWCAs, including the Lancaster Y on North Lime Street.
Each YWCA would provide space for a "Cyber Cafe" hub where students could receive a variety of services and "quietly study within a safe haven," according to the application.
The hubs would provide students with tutoring, along with test proctoring, guest lectures and college recruitment activities, the application states.
In addition, a family liaison would be available to help connect students and families to health care and dental services, food banks, housing, utility assistance, counseling and/or assistance with child care.
The Lancaster Cyber Cafe likely would be located in the YWCA's former parent-child learning center, now used mainly as meeting space, said Angela Trout, spokeswoman for the YWCA.
Trout said the school would lease the space and provide computers, other equipment and staff to establish the Cyber Cafe, which would accommodate up to 15 students.
Charter school officials approached the Y about participating in the program about a month ago, Trout said.
"No lease has been signed, and nothing formal has happened," she said. "The space would be ours to use for other programming when the students are not there."
The new school aims to enroll 250 students statewide in 2013-14 and add 250 students per year through 2017-18, according to its application. It would add Cyber Cafes in other cities across Pennsylvania as enrollment increased.
Urban Cyber Charter plans to provide instruction in multiple modalities — video, audio, text, activities and written work — that will allow students with various learning styles to be successful, according to its application.
The school also will offer "virtual career direction courses" designed to enhance urban students' interests in the performing arts and sports science.
Like all public charter schools, it would be funded with tuition payments from school districts in which its students live. Urban Cyber Charter expects to receive about $8,900 per regular-education pupil and about $25,000 for each special-education student.
In Lancaster County, about 1,500 students now attend public charter schools, mainly online, that cost school districts nearly $14 million per year in tuition payments.
The company that would manage Urban Cyber Charter also manages the New Hope, Challenge and IMPACT academies, all in York.
The York City school board this summer denied a new charter for New Hope, citing concerns about students' academic achievement, financial accountability and other issues, according to news reports.
Only 35 percent of New Hope pupils scored "proficient" or "advanced" last school year on math PSSA tests, and 37 percent hit those benchmarks in reading, according to the state Department of Education.
The standard for schools to make "adequate yearly progress" was 78 percent in math and 81 percent in reading.
New Hope has appealed the school board's decision to the state Charter School Appeal Board.
While local school directors approve charters for "brick-and-mortar" schools, the state is responsible for approving cybercharter schools.
Urban Cyber Charter is one of eight cyber schools seeking approval this year. The state currently has 16 operating public online schools.
Hearings on the new schools' applications will be held from Nov. 26 to 30 in Harrisburg, and the Department of Education must render decisions by Jan. 28.
