Winfield-Mt. Union looks to go viral

By SALLY Y. HAYES

Mt. Pleasant News

WINFIELD ? ?We know it?s going to be a push, but we?re going to keep working on it and see what we can do. Hopefully, we?ll pull something off,? stated Winfield-Mt. Union Superintendent Pat Coen of establishing an online academy in Winfield.

?We started out on the 22nd (of March) with Mr. Dean Hamilton, representatives from Grasshorse, regional economic development organizations, several teachers and we talked about the possibility of Winfield-Mt. Union being a regional online academy,? Coen said.

He explained to the W-MU board of directors at its regular session meeting Wednesday night, that currently Iowa purchases online education services from out of state, which means that Iowa?s tax dollars are being spent out of state.

He sees it as a multi-faceted benefit for southeast Iowa and Winfield specifically; an online academy would generate more educational and technological jobs, as well as give students more resources and options.

The concept has already received positive feedback from the political sector.

?I made contact with all of Winfield?s state representatives, the governor?s office and the department of education. We did receive positive phone calls back from senators and representatives, excited about the opportunities that are present to do this here in Iowa as opposed to spending tax dollars outside of the state,? said the superintendent.

The online classes would use programs like Edmodo, which W-MU currently uses with its 1:1 initiative.

Coen explained that he and IT Director Zac Hamburg have discussed with teachers the possible format for the courses. ?We talked about content in that class that they?re already teaching that is online. So we went through it and determined that it was anywhere from 30 to 60 percent of the content is already out there,? said Coen.

?Now the remaining 70 to 40 percent of the content would be Grasshorse coming in and digitally capturing the teacher and the processes and then bringing it all together and packaging it so it was a high quality product that we would sell in the state of Iowa,? he continued.

Hamburg said, ?I?m excited. It will offer more technological and educational jobs.?

W-MU social studies teacher Mark Begey shared Hamburg?s sentiment. ?It will cut down barriers for students; it will provide more options for kids and I think its something to continue to push towards.?

The barriers Begey nodded at could be anything from financial issues, the inability to travel to open enroll at another school, bullying or the lack of courses offered at a student?s current high school.

?Grasshorse would have to have more employees. Winfield schools would have to have additional employees. Hopefully, we can get some people to move to town and we can start building a resource right here in Winfield,? said Coen.

Board member Dan Shurr asked if students taking the online courses would open enrolled at W-MU.

Coen answered, ?If they were a student in Iowa, they could open enroll at Winfield; if they met the deadline of open enrollment, we?d received the $6,000 for the student, that is an option.

?Right now the two schools that the department of education allows to do this, people are open enrolling to their schools and right now there are 800 students open enrolled to online courses in Iowa. So that?s 800 kids times $6,000; but 98 percent of that $6,000 goes to New Jersey or California, because they?re buying that service from New Jersey or California,? continued Coen.

Initially the school would look to offer high school and middles school courses that are taken by the most number of students, such as government.

?Over a three to five year time frame we could have a K-5 system in place here and all of the sudden that revenue is coming in here. We?d be limiting ourselves if we didn?t also think of home school or Missouri or Illinois. The potential is limitless,? Coen stated.

If the students were to not meet the open enrollment criteria the student would pay for the classes he or she enrolled in through the online academy.

?Now am I dreaming big? Yes, I am. But the resources are here and we?re getting many people from senators on down saying this is a great idea,? said Coen.

?We?re going to make it clear that we want to strengthen not only our school system and educational opportunities for our children, but also the economic portion of our town,? stated the superintendent.

?Of course there are a million things to work through, but if you don?t start somewhere you don?t start.? Coen concluded, ?We have to strike while the iron is hot.?

In other business:

? The board approved a resolution to elect board members at large. President Robyn Therme read the resolution, ?? To change the method of election of the board of directors from the current method of three single director districts with each director there elected at large as residents of their director district and two at large directors to propose the method of all five at large directors.?

? The W-MU track meet will honor alum Kerry Conard by naming the open 400 in his name. The board agreed to further acknowledge the legacies of its successful athletes in various facets.

? An agreement was reached regarding salaries between the school district and the education association. Changes include: adding fathers in-law and mothers in-law to the list of immediate family, increasing the base pay to $26,970, and the schedule A three year contract will increase by four percent the first year, followed by 3.5 percent increases the following two years.

The W-MU school board will hold its next regular session meeting Wednesday, May 9 at 6:30 p.m.