The commission, which will be able to authorize 10 charter schools in the next decade, hosted sessions around the state to gather feedback about regional gaps in education programs that charter schools potentially could fill.

Commissioners will consider that input as they review applications from groups that want to start charter schools.

About 20 people attended the daytime input session in Augusta, which followed others in Portland and Bangor. Two more are scheduled to take place in Machias and Presque Isle next month.

At the Portland session, according to the Maine Department of Education, people asked for schools offering learning that is project-based, proficiency-based, hands-on or interdisciplinary; focused on music and mathematics, music and language or science, technology, engineering and mathematics; or available online.

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“Our goal is to help schools and districts to improve student achievement. The Plato Virtual Academy is an important step forward in doing that,” said Jamie Candee, Plato Learning vice president of product and marketing. “We are here to partner–not compete–with educators to meet the needs of 21st century learners.”

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But the school board was torn, Tuesday night, over whether to stick with the suggested name, NW Online Academy, or localize it as Hillsboro Online Academy. They weren’t budging on “online academy.”

They debated the merits of both. The NW version would have broader reach and might draw in students who aren’t interested in Hillsboro School District, such as some of the 497 homeschooled kids in the district. But a few board members said it was boring and generic.

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The work session, which begins at 6 p.m., is for discussion only. No decisions will be made.

The board is considering the name Northwest Online Academy for its virtual school, which is expected to open next September. The school is part of the district’s move toward offering its students learning options.

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The trouble is, when they enroll in an online school, state aid goes with them. Hometown schools can’t afford the loss.

In 2012, the Coquille School District will expand its online course offerings in an effort to lure back some of its 16 students who have enrolled in online schools. If the effort succeeds, the district could recapture thousands of dollars in state funding.

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Interim Superintendent Wade Smith called the trend toward online learning a revolution, one that is luring students away from traditional, brick-and-mortar public schools.

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‘We find that a lot of students … try online schools and then are back within a few weeks of having left the district,” he said.

Generally that occurs because students don’t have the support they need to successfully complete work, he said. ‘But if you’re stuck and you don’t’ have an answer, it’d be nice to drive five minutes and say, ‘Hey, can you help me out with this part of it?” he added.

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Under the old law, online charter schools had a cap on the total number of students who could enroll. Starting this school year, lawmakers chose instead to allow up to three percent of the students in any public school district across the state to enroll in one of Oregon’s full-time virtual schools.

Todd Miller is executive director of Oregon Connections Academy, the state’s largest online public charter school. Miller says enrollment has grown by nearly 25 percent this school year to more than 3,000 students.

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Reps. Brian Clem, D-Salem, and Arnie Roblan, D-Coos Bay, also changed their votes to support the measure after initially opposing it.

Rep. Michael Dembrow, a Portland Democrat who chaired the task force, said the field of online learning is rapidly evolving and the committee wanted specific authority from the Legislature to study more than just full-time online schooling.

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The Task Force on Virtual School Governance was supposed to recommend ways to improve the oversight of online schools. Its creation helped sway three Democrats to switch their votes, allowing the narrow passage of a contentious bill giving more students access to Internet-based learning.

But the panel issued a report this week asking the Legislature only for authority to expand its scope and continue working next year. The report says the panel got a late start and didn’t have enough time to thoroughly investigate the topic.

It was supposed to issue the report by Oct. 1, but didn’t hold its first meeting until Nov. 3, in part because Gov. John Kitzhaber’s office was slow to make appointments for two of the five seats on the panel.

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