• Students earn a diploma from the Port Allegany School District and graduate with classmates.
• Students learn through a high quality, district approved curriculum.
• Students receive online teacher and on-campus tutoring support if needed.
• Students have the opportunity to enroll in a career/technical program through the Seneca Highlands Career and Technology Center.
• Optional blended/hybrid scheduling (students may take a course in the brick-and-mortar building while completing all other coursework online).
• Students receive a Cyber School in a Box - a notebook computer, printer/scanner, additional hardware and software, live teacher support, and friendly technical support.
• Students have full access to district resources and facilities, including guidance counseling services, libraries, and athletics facilities.
• Students may join district sponsored extracurricular activities, special interest groups and sports teams, and participate in field trips and school events.

Download our Port Allegany Virtual Academy brochure.

Enrollment in Port Allegany Virtual Academy is quick and easy! Simply download and complete the enrollment form.

• Port Allegany Virtual Academy Application for Enrollment

Upon completion, please contact Ms. Erika Emerick to schedule an appointment to discuss the registration process, review any specific needs the student may have, and prepare for the student to transition into the Port Allegany Virtual Academy program.

Ms. Erika Emerick 
Assistant Principal
Phone: 814.642.2544 x4206
Email: eemerick@pasdedu.org

Please note: If your student is currently enrolled outside of Port Allegany School District, you will also need to complete the district registration process. Please contact Mrs. Benson, guidance secretary, at 814.642.2466 for more information.

Learning Environment
We recognize that each student learns differently and has unique requirements for scheduling flexibility. Port Allegany Virtual Academy is designed to provide students with the flexibility they need while maintaining checkpoints to ensure they are accountable for their daily activity. Students receive a Cyber School in a Box™ bundle, which includes a laptop computer, printer/scanner, all of the necessary peripherals, and access to both live teacher support and technical support.

Curriculum
The curriculum used in Port Allegany Virtual Academy equips students in grades k through 12 with a fundamental knowledge-base. Though the classroom is virtual, the course framework utilizes Port Allegany School District approved curriculum and textbooks. The courses have a consistent structure and are designed to provide students with engaging content, assignments, and assessments. Weekly lesson modules include reading assignments supported by short answer assessments, essay questions, quizzes, and traditional homework assignments. Courses are also supplemented with a wealth of web-based resources, including: videos, interactive animations, supplemental materials from textbook publishers, and a wide range of other engaging educational media.

Mastering the Content
A variety of activities and assessments are vital to a student’s success. While multiple-choice assessments are an important part of any assessment structure, we ask students to further demonstrate mastery with the following exercises:

Students are also required to show their work on all math coursework, so our teachers can verify their understanding of the material.

Platform
Students are provided with a unique username and password, which grants them access to their student portal. This portal includes a calendar to keep students on track to finish their coursework by the established deadline. It also offers students single sign-on access to their coursework, content libraries, and all of the tools they will need to be successful. Help desk specialists are available from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., seven days a week, in order to provide any necessary assistance. Students may grant the help desk specialists permission to resolve software issues remotely; hardware issues entail a Cyber School in a Box™ bundle swap at the Port Allegany High School, which minimizes downtime.

Attendance
Students in Port Allegany Virtual Academy follow the Port Allegany School District attendance policy. Attendance is taken every day by the online homeroom teacher. Special exemptions may be provided for students with attendance conflicts due to illness, work, sports practices, and other considerations.

Communication
There are a variety of communication tools and techniques that are utilized in Port Allegany Virtual Academy. First, students are required to meet with their homeroom teacher in the virtual classroom each day. This helps to keep students on track to complete their coursework on time. Homeroom is also an opportunity for district announcements to be conveyed to keep Port Allegany Virtual Academy students abreast of the happenings within Port Allegany School District. Finally, homeroom teachers also meet with students individually to review their progress, address any areas of improvement, and identify artifacts that students may consider including in a portfolio.

In addition to homeroom, students have the opportunity to meet with their core content-area teachers in the virtual classroom. Students may either stop by the virtual classroom during the open office hours sessions that take place on Monday through Friday or schedule an appointment with their teacher ahead of time. These sessions enable students to ask specific questions about their coursework and receive one-on-one assistance. Our teachers use the webcam, microphone, and whiteboard to make the classroom “come alive” and deliver the same type of experience as if the teacher and student were face-to-face.  

Grading
Grading and feedback is provided by Port Allegany Virtual Academy’s highly-qualified, Pennsylvania-certified teachers. While some grading is done automatically within the learning management system, there are a variety of assignments and assessments that students are required to complete each week on which teachers provide constructive feedback within 72 hours of submission. Students and their parents/guardians have access to the online gradebook to view the student’s overall grade in a course as well as his/her scores on individual assignments. In addition, students and their parents/guardians may download their graded artifacts to review their teachers’ feedback.

Support Mechanisms
It is our goal to provide each student with the tools and support systems that he/she needs in order to be successful. This goal is accomplished in a variety of ways:

Daily Homeroom Session - Homeroom is a daily synchronous session in which:

• Attendance is taken.
• Important district announcements are delivered.
• Student expectations and due dates are reviewed
• One-on-one student reflection meetings are conducted in which the homeroom teacher reviews an individualized learning plan with each student.
• Students have the opportunity to ask questions related to orientation, technical concerns, etc.

Attendance and Performance Reporting - Awareness is vital to the success of students in Port Allegany Virtual Academy. With that in mind, we offer a variety of reports to students and parents/guardians:

*Parents/guardians may adjust this frequency based on their preference.

Students and their parents/guardians are provided with logins to the online gradebook so student performance can be reviewed at any time.

Your Cyber Support Team

Program Coordinator - Ms. Erika Emerick
Please contact Ms. Emerick if you have questions regarding district policies.

• Phone: 814.642.2544
• Email: eemerick@pasdedu.org

Homeroom Teacher - TBD
Please contact your homeroom teacher if you have any questions about the program, your performance, or if you need to provide a written excuse for an absence.

• Phone: 1.877.856.3311
• Email: TBD

Content-Area Teachers
Please contact your content-area teachers if you have any questions on a specific course in which you are enrolled. To request a tutoring session with your teacher you can submit the “Get Help From Teacher” form in the student portal.

• Phone: 1.877.856.3311
• Email: Your teachers' email addresses can be found in the online gradebook by right-clicking a teacher’s name and selecting 'copy email address’ from the menu.

Technical Support
Please contact technical support if you are experiencing any issues with your Cyber School in a Box™ equipment or any of the applications you are using. There are several ways in which a help desk specialist can be reached:

• Login: Click the ‘Connect to Technical Support’ icon on your laptop
• Phone: 1.877.856.3311
• Email: technicalsupport@vlnpartners.com

Accounts
Parents/guardians are provided with a login to the online gradebook in which student progress can be monitored real-time. We also offer the option for a variety of reports to be emailed based on the desired frequency.

Computer Basics
In order to be successful in the program, students should have a basic understanding of the following:

• Setting up a wireless internet connection (help desk specialists are available to assist with this task).
• Accessing Internet Explorer.
• Using Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel (courses are available to enhance a student’s skill set).
• Scanning documents (Help desk specialists are available to assist with this task).

Internet Safety
At Port Allegany School District, student safety is our number one priority. In compliance with the Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA), all laptops are equipped with web-filtering software, which ensures that students are not accessing inappropriate content. In addition, all virtual classrooms are monitored by Port Allegany Virtual Academy teachers. Finally, we offer a digital citizenship course that teaches students safe internet practices.