JEFFERSON TWP — The South Butler School District renewed a contract with the Seneca Valley School District to enroll students in the Seneca Valley Academy of Choice cyber school option.

The board approved a four-year contract during its board meeting July 13. The district previously had a three-year contract, according to Knoch High School principal Todd Trofimuk.

The contract, for a total of $63,900, includes 15 full-time cyber seats and 200 single seats, according to assistant superintendent Richard Cavett. Under the contract, the district can still add on extra seats as needed, Trofimuk said.

Those 200 single seats are for students who want to take one class online, offering flexibility for students to fulfill school requirements like health or take electives not offered in a traditional classroom setting like Latin or Mandarin Chinese.

“There are some other courses that we can offer students (through the cyber agreement) that we may not have here (at South Butler),” Trofimuk said. “An example would be Latin. We do not have a Latin teacher but Seneca Valley has an online Latin course. (The student) does the work independently, but the Seneca Valley teacher would be the teacher of record.”

By having an agreement with Seneca Valley, the students enrolled in the Academy of Choice remain students of the South Butler district, meaning they can still participate in extracurriculars and athletics through the district, according to Trofimuk.

If a student enrolled in the Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School, the student would not have that opportunity, said Denise Manganello, the principal of Seneca Valley's cyber program.

This agreement allows students to enroll in vocational technical schools through their home district as well. That is not an option provided by the state's cyber charter school, Manganello said.

“By having a cyber program, they can take a performing arts or a traditional class. It's not a one-size fits all where as (the state's) cyber charters are all cyber,” Manganello said. “We provide more flexibility.”

In addition, using a local district's cyber program saves the district an estimated $50,000 for its 15 full-time seats since the cost of sending students to the PA Cyber Charter School is higher, Cavett said.

The Seneca Valley cyber program has about 700 students from the Seneca Valley district and partners with 42 other districts statewide, Manganello said. This includes the Sharon City School District in Mercer County and almost all of the Beaver County schools. Seneca Valley also has students from the eastern side of the state, with students from five school districts in Luzerne County, Manganello said.

“Our experience and our expertise of being involved for nine years in the cyber education field helps them jump ahead to where the cyber charters are also,” she said.