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Editor’s Note: This article was updated March 26, 2025 to include comments from Stanly County Schools Superintendent Dr. Jarrod Dennis.

By Chandler Inions, Salisbury Post

Starting next year, Rowan and Stanly could share more than just a county line.
During the Rowan-Salisbury Schools Board of Education meeting on Monday, RSS Alternative Learning Executive Director Ken Simeone outlined a new partnership between his district and Stanly County Schools that would see the latter make use of the former’s Summit Virtual Academy.
“We are really excited to partner with Stanly County Schools and offer courses for their students going into the next school year,” Simeone said at the meeting. “We have done extensive work on the MOA and what they can offer, what they wanted out of it, what we wanted out of it, and we feel that we have come to a really good partnership. We have worked really hard to get this together.”

Summit Virtual Academy is an online public school that serves students from kindergarten through 12th grade. It was founded in 2020 and has continued to grow field trip opportunities each year, providing in-person experiences that pair with virtual trips.
As Simeone explained, the memorandum of agreement that was approved on Monday highlights the framework between the two school districts.
“It outlines all of our responsibilities, the delivery of the virtual programming for Stanly County students through Summit Virtual,” Simeone said. “RSS will provide academic coursework, iPads and other relevant materials (and) experiences for students.
“What they will provide is tuition for students enrolled in our virtual program as well as the testing accommodations and the settings that would be offered for EOG/EOC tests for their students as well.”
According to the MOA, SCS will pay tuition and fees for each of its students who attend SVA. Annual visiting student tuition will be $2,333.40, with some minor variances depending on the extent of instruction.
For example, tuition for SCS students enrolling after the 20th day of school will be prorated based on the student’s actual enrollment date. SCS will also be responsible for a full month’s tuition for students enrolling on or before the 15th of a given month. For students enrolling after the 15th of a given month, SCS will be charged as if the student enrolled on the first day of the following month. If a student withdraws from SVA after the first-semester billing cycle, RSS will issue a prorated refund of SCS’s tuition payment based on the student’s withdrawal date.
Additionally, if SCS requires in-person technical assistance, the district will compensate for mileage.
“What we really tried to do, though, is make this a true partnership where they know that they can come to us for true needs academically,” Simeone said. “If they have any needs with their iPads, or anything else, but also offering the tools to Stanly County so that they can assist in that endeavor as well.”
Simeone indicated that they are considering onboarding 50-60 students from the outset.
“From what we can see, if more come, that is fantastic,” he said. “We are trying to push this forward as something that is new and different for the state. This is not something that anyone else is doing right now. If they have done it, they only did it as a regionalized virtual school instead of true partnership.”
Currently, RSS serves approximately 400 students through its Summit Virtual Academy, so the increase in student attendance would represent, at least initially, about a 15% uptick.
“We are thankful for them to come to us and see our program of Summit as one they want to partner with and participate with,” Simeone said. “We are excited to be a part of it as well because it allows us to showcase what we are doing and what they are doing and realistically what our students are doing in Rowan Salisbury Schools through our virtual program.”
Simeone said that the partnership kind of fell into their laps but that it feels like a good fit.
“Stanly County was looking for a partner,” he said. “They currently have a virtual school (where) they are serving about 60-65 students and were looking for a partner to offer additional courses that maybe they could not offer.
“(RSS Superintendent Dr. Kelly Withers) and I were already talking about where we could partner, and it was great that this fell into our lap, a district that really wanted to partner,” he said.

For his part, SCS Superintendent Dr. Jarrod Dennis said that the partnership appealed to his district because of the “ability to have synchronous courses with certified teachers.”
Dennis also indicated that if the partnership goes well, SCS could consider expansion.
“If the need and appetite for more enrollment from our community necessitated expansion, we would work with RSS to assess the feasibility,” Dennis said. “We do not have a desired number at this time.”
Rowan school board member Dr. Rebecca Childs expressed enthusiasm about the prospect, adding that it represents in her mind the possibilities of what the school system is capable of.
“I am happy to hear that this is part of the innovation aspect of the district that is so essential,” Childs said.
The motion to approve the MOA was made by school board member Sabrina Harris and seconded by school board member Dr. Lynn Marsh before being approved unanimously by the board.