A staff member at Pennsylvania Leadership Charter School suggested lightheartedly that the mascot of the school should be the Phoenix since the school had risen out of the ashes of a very popular cyber charter school, Einstein Academy Cyber Charter School.

Einstein, which started in the fall of 2001 through a charter with one of the smallest school districts in Pennsylvania, struggled from the beginning. Limitations the school faced included zero start up funding from the state for cyber charter schools, an immediate set of lawsuits from the PA School Boards Association on constitutional grounds, delayed funding from the school districts and the state and the almost impossible task of serving the 3,200 students that signed up the first fall.

This school was popular because it offered the first opportunity for K-12 students to attend a fully interactive cyber charter school. Most who did, loved the experience and packed courtrooms throughout the state to let their feelings be known.

Unfortunately, the outside pressures and the resulting internal confusion caused the chartering school district to revoke the charter but only after the PA State Legislature rewrote the law to give cyber charter schools full legal standing. Seeing the inevitable demise of the school they loved, a group of parents and educators developed a plan to start another school that would build on the strengths interactive Internet learning. They, as well as four other groups, applied directly to the PA Department of Education for a new charter – as was required by the new cyber charter school law. PA Leadership was one of two schools allowed to open. This new school, PA Leadership Charter School, answered hundreds of questions with over 2,000 pages of documentation and survived four rounds of application over a one and half year period to finally be approved January 23, 2004 to open in the fall of 2004.

The founders of PA Leadership have added to the strengths of Einstein by partnering with 17 of the best national online curriculum companies. These companies have spent millions of dollars developing fun, colorful, challenging, interactive lessons. They in essence have taken “see Spot run” and turned it into a video game. The most popular aspect of the cyber school, though, is the interaction students can have with their teachers. Through online classrooms, chat rooms, instant messaging, video and audio conferencing, e-mail and phone communication, students often get more time with their teacher(s) than they would in a more traditional classroom setting.

PA Leadership founders also see this as a unique opportunity for Special Education students. With reduced overhead costs and networks they have built throughout the state, they will be able to offer Special Needs students a safe, supportive learning environment. Special Education teachers and related services will be able to visit the home periodically and communicate daily with the student via the computer that the school provides for each student.

These dynamics should give each student an opportunity to soar. Thus it was appropriate for the school to choose the Eagle, not the Phoenix, as the mascot. PA Leadership prefers to focus on the future and training leaders to solve tomorrow’s problems. “Let the past teach us lessons, but let our eyes be on the path in front of us,” stated Paul Selby, III, Chairman of the Board of Directors and father of six potential students for the school – six of several hundred who have already signed up for the fall semester.

Submitted by Dr. James Hanak, Chief Executive Officer, PA Leadership Charter School