Midland School District Superintendent Nick Trombetta often begins his story talking about how no Pennsylvania high school in 1994 would accept students from the tiny Beaver County district when its high school closed, causing students to bus to East Liverpool, Ohio.

That episode motivated Dr. Trombetta, who arrived in Midland the following year, to seek out new ways to educate students, beginning with the founding of the Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School, which opened six years ago.

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Now the Trombetta-inspired educational empire far exceeds the reach and budget of his home school district, which has 450 students, about 60 full- and part-time employees and a $4.4 million budget. The cyber school alone has about 4,400 students, 400 employees and a $30 million budget.

One of his latest organizations, the National Network of Digital Schools, known as NNDS, was founded last August and is poised to take on a national or even international presence through online education.

Another organization Dr. Trombetta helped to start, the Lincoln Park Performing Arts Center in Midland, is scheduled to have its grand opening with a Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra concert on Thursday.

The arts center has a 750-seat theater, 180-seat black box theater, dance studios, music rooms, a recording studio, a TV studio, classrooms and space for some of the cyber school's staff.

The $23.5-million arts center was paid for by $7.5 million from the state and three 20-year prepaid leases: $10 million from the cyber school, $3 million from the Midland district and $3 million from Beaver County so that Community College of Beaver County can hold classes there. The leases cover use of the space, but the leaseholders will pay extra for services.

Still another venture -- the Lincoln Park Performing Arts Charter School -- opened last fall. The school, which was chartered by Midland, is paying for nearly 50 high school students to attend Western Beaver School District this school year. The charter school will move into the performing arts center in the fall, but students from Midland enrolled in the charter school will have the choice of continuing at Western Beaver.

For his roles, Dr. Trombetta is paid $100,000 a year as Midland superintendent and $100,000 a year as chief executive officer of the cyber school.

He is unpaid as director of NNDS, is paid $1 a year as executive director of the Lincoln Park Performing Arts Center and has no title with the Lincoln Park Charter School, although he helped to establish it. He also received a onetime payment of $58,000 in 2004 for the time he spent over four years helping to start the performing arts center.

When Dr. Trombetta draws an organizational chart of the various organizations using squares and circles connected by lines to show how the groups are interconnected, NNDS is the one he puts at the top.

By law, Pennsylvania charter schools -- which are public schools for which home school districts pay for each resident enrolled -- are limited to in-state students.

But NNDS can take the cyber school programs developed in Midland and extend them to a host of potential clients. It has clients in Ohio and New Mexico and is in discussion with potential clients in West Virginia and Louisiana.

"We want to be a national model," said Dr. Trombetta, saying he wants to bring jobs to the region.

Some of the groups NNDS is at least talking about serving are:

New Orleans students who need to catch up on credits after missing class following Hurricane Katrina.

U.S. military offspring who need consistency in educational programs as they move from state to state or country to country.

Brick-and-mortar schools that have teacher shortages in certain fields or want to round out their offerings.

When the Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School -- then known as the Western Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School -- opened, it had just 527 students in kindergarten through 12th grade from throughout the state and paid to share some services with Midland, like a psychologist and basement space.

As it grew, its space expanded to eight buildings it owns or leases in Midland. The arts center will provide additional space, and one of the initial eight buildings is being demolished for a parking lot.

The cyber school also has space in Beaver; Cranberry, Butler County; and Springfield, a suburb of Philadelphia.

When the cyber school began, it relied on curriculum materials designed elsewhere, but it later began to develop its own online curriculum called Lincoln Interactive, now sold through NNDS.

The cyber school's growth led to the creation in 2004 of Rodis LLC to handle the business affairs of the cyber school, which itself would concentrate on delivering the education. Rodis also was to pursue the expansion of the online program in other states.

However, in March last year, the cyber school sent a letter giving Rodis President Michael Barney 60 days notice that Rodis was being terminated. That termination is being disputed in a lawsuit filed by Rodis in Beaver County Common Pleas Court.

NNDS, which rents space in Beaver but will move to Midland, was formed afterward to perform many of the same functions as Rodis did.

The cyber school is paying NNDS $2 million for the first year of service. After that, when a more complete array of services is provided, the fee will increase to about $3.6 million or about 12 percent of the cyber school's budget.

The services that NNDS will provide include accounting, auditing, state reports, marketing, facilities management, purchasing, procurement, human resources, custodial services, curriculum development.

The hallmark of the Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School is, of course, online education, provided with the assistance of certified teachers who keep in touch with students via phone and e-mail. The school provides a home computer and has attracted students from more than 400 school districts statewide.

In some cases, the program students receive is a blend of cyber and bricks-and-mortar education. Cyber high school students, for example, can enroll for classes on-site at Community College of Beaver County.

With the opening of the Lincoln Park Performing Arts Center, other offerings also will be available. The center will provide live and online arts instruction as well as hands-on outreach programs for cyber students in other locations through the center's Henry Mancini Arts Academy program, which has partnerships with about dozen Beaver County school districts. The cyber school is paying $100 per semester per student for the arts programs.

Dr. Trombetta sees "blended schools" -- schools that combine bricks-and-mortar education with online classes -- as the wave of the future.

"I know that every school sooner or later will have to provide cyber services," he said.

In April, Michigan's governor signed legislation requiring all Michigan students to take at least one online course before they graduate from high school.

Many regular public school districts see the Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School and the other 11 cyber schools in the state as competitors that drain dollars from the districts.

But this school year, Pennsylvania Cyber has worked with some traditional schools.

Beaver Falls and Beaver this year bought some online curriculum, and Aliquippa is expected to do the same next school year.

"We believe we can be the gold standard for this new industry," Dr. Trombetta said.