Students at Monadnock Regional High School in Swanzey Center will have access to a new class that will prepare them for a two-year, post-secondary program in health sciences, according to interim Principal Thomas Stewart.

The class is called “Human Body,” and is designed for students interested in fire science or emergency medical technician work, Stewart said.

Monadnock students will also have access to an array of classes taught around the world through the Virtual High School program. A teacher at the school is now certified as an instructor in the program, which provides online classes in subjects such as physics, political science and Mandarin.

Having a certified instructor gives the school more seats to offer students.

For the rest of the article, go to New classes to greet students

GREENFIELD – Even though there has been no final decision on Greenfield opening a virtual school this fall, school officials are still optimistic that they will get the OK from the state, so they have been hard at work to ensure that the school will be able to open.

On July 21, the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education passed the commissioner’s proposed virtual school regulations that many felt would make it impossible to start the Greenfield school in September.

But, the board also voted to allow the commissioner to rule on the waiver request submitted by Greenfield, asking that some of the provisions in the new rules be waived so it could open its school this fall.

School Committee Chairman John Lunt said on Monday that he is optimistic that they will get the green light to open the virtual school and expects a decision soon.

For the rest of the article, go to Greenfield school officials work to open virtual school in fall; await state OK

CHESTERFIELD, N.H. — Chole McKeon, 17, of Chesterfield, has always had trouble with school work. Words and numbers would end up in the wrong place. She would write one word but mean to write another.

McKeon suffers from Attention Deficit Disorder as well as other spatial and learning disabilities, which made school extremely difficult, she said.

“It was very stressful,” McKeon said. “I would dread being in school the whole day and at the end. I would feel like I failed.”

This continued until her junior year of high school where she and her parents decided to take a new approach, online classes through the Virtual Learning Academy Charter School, New Hampshire’s first statewide online high school.

In June, McKeon and 11 other students were the first-ever graduating class of the program.

High school students who reside in New Hampshire are eligible to apply and once accepted may enroll for part-time or full-time studies, tuition free.

For the rest of the article, go to Virtual diploma

NASHUA – Taylor Wilmot received her high school diploma in the mail, never having met any of her teachers or classmates.

Wilmot, 18, was one of the first graduates of the Virtual Learning Academy Charter School, an online public charter school. She graduated in June, along with 11 other students, making up the school’s first graduating class. The school is based in Exeter, but Wilmot never set foot in town, taking all of her courses from her Nashua home. She is spending her summer taking a writing class at Nashua Community College, where she will enroll full time in the fall. The class she is taking now isn’t online, but in a building with a teacher at the front of the classroom.

Going back to the old-school way of learning has been an adjustment.

“I love being around people. It’s nice and refreshing to go to a school,” Wilmot said. “But at the same time, I’m sitting there for four hours. I didn’t miss sitting in those hard chairs with a desk.”

For the rest of the article, go to Online high school grad continues education in college setting

In 2003, the state created a 10-year pilot program authorizing the state Board of Education to grant up to 20 applications during that period. The state used a federal charter school start-up grant to help schools with facilities other than opening costs.

As of the fall 2009, 15 of 16 applications have been authorized. Eleven schools are still open. Among them are the Virtual Learning Academy, which provides online course opportunities for high school students across the state.

The Academy for Science and Design has grown every year since opening. It plans to add a sixth grade to its current grades of 7 through 12, and increase enrollment to 190 kids next year, almost double the current figure.

Charter schools are open to all New Hampshire students. The state was providing charter schools with $5,500 per student during the 2009-10 school year. That figure is less than half of the state’s reported average per-pupil cost for 2008-09 of $11,745.55.

For the rest of the article, go to Bill lifting charter school cap passes