New Ag-Focused Virtual Charter School Recruiting Students

A new virtual charter school focusing on agriculture is set to open at the end of July. But students won’t be confined to a computer screen for the entirety of their time at the school.

Representatives from the Indiana Agriculture & Technology School held an information session in Bloomington Wednesday to explain more about how the new program will work.

It incorporates a physical farm campus in Morgantown, with hundreds of acres of crops, pasture, and forest that will give students hands-on experience.

Chief Academic Officer Keith Marsh says the school is drawing kids regardless of any farming background.

“We’re getting a lot of kids that have never been around that industry and are interested in it so we want to get them exposed to that and at the same time we want to create some careers for them,” Marsh says.

Kids in grades 7 through 12 are eligible to attend the new virtual school, which is targeting a total enrollment size of roughly 550 students.

Marsh says the smaller student body comes from a desire to maintain a more personal relationship with the students and foster a close-knit environment.

Marsh says it will allow students to receive more one-on-one instruction.

“With the lead teacher, the concept coach, the success coach, and the student learning advocate,” Marsh says. “So you’ve got four people with one student.”

Classes are scheduled to start July 30.