Anotherprogrammatic change this school year is the addition of Virtual High School, which allows up to 25 students each semester to take an online course from a wide array of listings.

Students taking a Virtual High School course do weekly assignments and interact with the teacher and classmates from around the world through the Internet.

“It adds additional opportunities for kids to take course work in their areas of interest even if the courses aren’t offered at MAU,” Principal Sue Maguire said.

Additionally, students get the experience to take an online course, which could benefit them in the future.

“It also gives students an opportunity to try an online course before going off to college where they will often be expected to work in an online environment,” Barnes said.

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We cannot sustain our spending levels without working together to make dramatic changes.

Consolidating school dis­tricts where it makes sense, bulk-purchasing, and similar measures can help. We must optimize the talents of our educators, and implement a strong program for profes­sional development. They deserve clear and attainable standards of accountability for student performance.

Our educators account for 70 percent of a school’s costs, but 100 percent of its success.

The $47.1 million in fed­eral funding just awarded to our state for internet expan­sion will bring untold oppor­tunity and a new level of equality to classrooms across our state, with distan­ce- learning, technical train­ing, virtual classrooms and more, by linking every school to high-capacity, high-speed, and affordable broadband. We also need comprehensive data systems to track achievement, so we know what works and what doesn’t.Education is about children. Quality must come first. We need to empower parents, and look to them to make the best decisions about their own children’s future. The only way we can meet our education chal­lenge is through partnership and trust, and by growing jobs and paychecks.

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The classes, which are done completely online, will be offered through Virtual High School. It has hundreds of classes with curriculum designed by teachers from across the world.

MAU teacher Diane Moore is formulating the curriculum for an anatomy and physiology course for Virtual High School and in return MAU receives the opportunity for 25 students to take one of the Virtual High School offerings each semester, many of which are not taught at the high school.

“It gives us the opportunity to expand course offerings for kids,” said Kristyn Harrington, a school-based clinician who is acting as co-site coordinator with Virtual High School.

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The Vermont Department of Education requested proposals for the $400,000 Title IID grant program from entities within Vermont in the fall of 2009. The grant tasked an entity to lead, manage, and develop a system that provided online learning opportunities for all Vermont schools. “We are very pleased with this model and feel the cooperative model makes it very appealing for Vermont schools.” says Peter Drescher, Education Technology Coordinator overseeing the Title IID program.

Vermont now joins 26 other states in the country by offering a virtual school option to its students.

“The initial phases of this program will require support from school administrators as we train teachers to teach online and ramp up course offerings,” says the new Program Coordinator, Jeff Renard. “We want schools to become supporting members by offering courses from their schools which, in turn, will get them seats in other online courses being offered by other schools around the state.”

Renard has been the Distance Learning Coordinator with the River Valley Technical Center in Springfield , Vermont for ten years and has offered distance learning courses throughout Vermont and New Hampshire.

Called the Vermont Virtual Learning Cooperative (VTVLC), this initiative is being spearheaded by a partnership of several regions around the state, including he River Valley Technical Center and Springfield School District , Burlington School District and five others that will be selected through a sub-grant process that will be released later this month.

The other partners include the Graduate School of Marlboro College, the Community College of Vermont , Florida Virtual School , Global Classroom and the Learning Network of Vermont. These initial partners bring a wide range of experience and expertise to this endeavor and will be seeking individuals for the VTVLC advisory committee in the coming weeks. Their job will be to help develop a system that will make it easy for schools to share seats in an online classroom and help Vermont ’s students access courses that may not be available in their regional schools.

Professional development is a major facet of this effort, and teacher preparation will be a priority. The initial group of teachers will be participating in course work that consists of 15 graduate credits along with several other workshops, courses and train the trainer mentoring workshops.

Watch for more information that will be released to superintendents across the state regarding the RFPs for initial partnerships in the VTVLC. For all other inquiries, email Jeff Renard at jrenard@rvtc.org.

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