WEST GARDINER — Promotional materials for Maine’s first virtual charter school could do worse than to feature Karinna Dawbin’s children.

If Maine Connections Academy opens this fall, a lot of its students will probably resemble Dawbin’s three children in one way or another, so well do they epitomize the description given by virtual school advocates of students who benefit from that model.

Additional Photos

Kyrara Dawbin, 13, left, works on a lesson Thursday at the kitchen table with her mother, Karinna, and brother, Peter, 9, at their West Gardiner home. The Dawbins may enroll their children in Maine Connections Academy if it opens this fall. Andy Molloy/Kennebec Journal

Students in virtual schools learn mostly at home, receiving instruction and interacting with teachers online. Supporters say they work for students who have been bullied, have health problems, need an alternative schedule or want to move at a faster pace than a typical school can accommodate.

Virtual charter schools are also subject to plenty of criticism. Most are operated by for-profit companies, with public education dollars feeding the companies’ bottom lines. Many of the virtual schools in other states have poor records of student achievement.

The list of students who may benefit from virtual schooling echo Dawbin’s reasons for pulling two of her children out of the local public schools and wanting to enroll all of them in Maine Connections Academy.

Dawbin’s 9-year-old son, Peter, isn’t eligible to enroll in the school because the Maine Charter School Commission approved it only for grades 7-12. But Dawbin is hopeful that when he’s old enough, he won’t have the problems in a virtual school that led his mother to decide in January to homeschool him.

Dawbin said Peter often finished assignments well before his classmates, but sometimes teachers didn’t get around to returning them for a long time because of everything else they had on their plates. He became bored and distracted, and his grades started to slip.

Dawbin’s 13-year-old daughter, Kyrara, was homeschooled until fourth grade because of chronic asthma that triggered monthslong illnesses every time she got a cold. Now in eighth grade, Kyrara is being homeschooled again. With Kyrara preparing to enter high school, Dawbin hopes Maine Connections Academy can give her access to Advanced Placement and honors classes not on offer at typical brick-and-mortar high schools.

“I like the classes that are available,” she said. “I have aspirations that my children will go to college, so I want them to have a well-rounded education.”

Dawbin said all of her children have experienced bullying. She sees virtual school as a way to balance the safe environment of home with social interaction available through the clubs and field trips Maine Connections Academy plans to organize.

Another mother interested in virtual school, Caroline Lauzon, of Waterville, first heard about the concept from a friend in California with two children in a school run by Connections Education, the Maryland-based company that will run Maine Connections Academy.

Lauzon pulled her 14-year-old son, James, out of the local public school this year because there were too many distractions and too much drama, she said. She has an education background and thinks she can keep him on task, and she’s excited that he’ll have access to foreign language classes and advanced mathematics.

Lauzon said she was not aware of the criticisms of virtual charter schools. She thinks they have the potential to be a solution for students who struggle in traditional schools, like her eldest son, whose Asperger’s syndrome made finishing high school a struggle.

Dawbin said she believes that when virtual schools seem to be underperforming, it’s because students’ “learning coaches” – usually parents, who are supposed to supervise the students – are not sufficiently involved.

The Charter School Commission approved Maine Connections Academy on March 3 under the shadow of a bill in the Legislature to place a moratorium. Three days later, however, Gov. LePage vetoed the bill

The margin of passage in the House for L.D. 1736 would not be enough to override the veto, and Dawbin hopes it will hold.

“If the moratorium goes through, I feel it puts Maine further behind the rest of the country,” she said.

Susan McMillan can be contacted at 621-5645 or at:

smcmillan@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @s_e_mcmillan

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