AUBURN – Officials trying to open a virtual charter school in Maine significantly changed their business model after critics and state officials said their original plan left too much power in the hands of a controversial national for-profit company.

The Maine Virtual Academy school board originally planned to have the vendor, K12 Inc., hire all teachers and provide back-office support and essentially run the school as a turnkey operation, school board Chairwoman Amy Carlisle acknowledged Monday. That’s the standard model for Virginia-based K12, the nation’s largest online education company that operates in 30-plus states.

But after the Maine Charter School Commission rejected the school’s application last spring, in part because of concerns over the poor performance of K12 schools in other states, the board made “substantial changes,” she said.

“We have heard you loud and clear,” Carlisle told commission on Monday. “This is a Maine school.”

K12 will be hired to provide the school’s curriculum and technology, but the school board will directly hire all the teachers and the head of school. Maine Virtual Academy also will have all teachers work out of a common building instead of their homes and will increase the pay scale for teachers.

“This is going to be Maine leadership and Maine management from the top down,” Carlisle told the commission, during an interview and public hearing on the application that was held at Central Maine Community College.

Only four people spoke during the public hearing, with three opposed and one parent in support.

The commission will vote Nov. 13 on whether to go into contract talks with Maine Virtual Academy. Those talks would last up to 60 days, after which the commission would take a final vote on whether to approve the school to open in fall 2015.

There are currently four spots available for new charter schools in Maine under the state’s 10-school cap through 2021. If approved, Maine Virtual Academy would be the second virtual charter school in Maine. Maine Connections Academy opened this fall.

On Monday, most of the questions from the commission members related to the school’s relationship with K12, from maintaining independence to how school officials would assess the quality of the curriculum, since virtual schools using K12 in other states have faced problems.

Bob Kautz, the executive director of the commission, noted that last week the Massachusetts Board of Education placed Greenfield Commonwealth Virtual School, which uses K12, on probation for a year because students showed low academic achievement.

“The issues you are seeing in different states show we need to be a strong manager of our (education service provider K12) and between our board and our contract we have a great deal of flexibility to handle them,” Carlisle said.

A revised contract between the school and K12 includes language allowing the school to work with other vendors if K12 can’t meet specific education needs, as opposed to an exclusive arrangement, along with easier terms to break the contract with K12 if necessary, school officials say.

As for assessing academic rigor, Carlisle noted that the Maine Department of Education has reviewed K12 and placed it on a list of approved vendors for online education, ensuring its curriculum meets Maine’s learning standards. Beyond that, the teachers and school officials will be monitoring student progress, officials said.

‘K12 is our provider of curriculum and technology, and it’s up to us as a board to develop goals and objectives. If they (K12) don’t meet the goals and objectives, we will leave them,” said board member Ed LeBlanc.

The public hearing only drew a handful of speakers. Three people opposed to the school all questioned the need for a second charter school, and noted that charter schools drain state funding from traditional public schools.

“Why, at a time when the needs of already existing schools are growing, would you approve a second charter school that essentially is redundant with the one that already exists?” asked Becky Fles, the president-elect of the Maine School Boards Association.

“We ask that you do the right thing for all students and taxpayers in Maine and give the virtual experiment time to prove itself, rather than approve a redundant program that will take badly needed resources away from public schools already serving our kids,” Fles said.

Virtual charter school students learn largely from home and get lessons online, with limited face-to-face interaction with teachers and administrators.

Supporters say the schools are good for students who don’t “fit” at traditional schools, from athletes doing intense training to students who have been bullied. Virtual charter schools also have drawn criticism, in part because local school boards outsource their management to for-profit companies that are beholden to shareholders.

Maine charter schools are publicly funded but operate independently of public school districts.

The Maine School Superintendents Association also opposes the school, and noted that charter school law spells out that the commission can deny applications if they do not meet “identified educational needs.”

“Given that we already have a virtual charter school, Connections Academy, in this state targeting the very same population – grades 7 through 12 – as would be targeted by Maine Virtual Academy, it is very difficult to see why we need another one,” said Suzanne Godin, the South Portland Superintendent and president of the Maine School Superintendents Association.

Commissioners also asked the school officials about the need for a second virtual school.

“The point is, you have a competitive environment, which I think is very valuable,” said board member Peter Mills. Others said the curriculum is also different, with different technology support systems, and that the proposed school would locate its headquarters in the Bangor or Augusta area, compared to Maine Connections, which is basing its teachers in a South Portland location. Virtual schools serve students statewide.

Carlisle said she is also continuing to hear from interested students and parents even though Maine Connections opened this fall.

A Lewiston parent, Stavros Medros, said during the hearing that he supported the school, noting that Lewiston schools are overcrowded and a virtual school might ease enrollment pressure there. He also said he explored online options for his own child, and thought virtual school programs “would be a little more structured” that traditional public schools.

Maine Connections Academy contracts its services from Connections Academy, a division of Maryland-based Connections Education, a for-profit company that manages virtual charter schools in more than 20 states. The company is owned by Pearson PLC in London, a multinational corporation that formulates standardized tests and publishes textbooks for many schools in the United States.

A 2012 Maine Sunday Telegram investigation of K12 and Connections Education showed that Maine’s digital education policies were being shaped in ways that benefited the two companies and that the companies recruited board members in the state.

Nationwide, there were 2.1 million students enrolled in charter schools in 2011-12, and 5.6 percent of all public schools were charters, according to the U.S. Department of Education.

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