HAITI: With schools in Haiti's capital city closed since last month's catastrophic earthquake -- and unlikely to open for several months -- informal classes have begun springing up in the streets. "The children are traumatized," said René Michel Longchamp, who gives lessons to the kids living in tents inside Haiti's national soccer stadium. "As a teacher, I'm obligated to work with them. I want things to feel as normal as possible." The older children play games and read Bible verses; the youngest children review colors, shapes and numbers. And even in the wealthy suburbs, parents are hiring out-of-work teachers to privately tutor their children for upcoming state exams.
"Our entire education system is suffering," said Micheline Augustin-Pierre, co-director of the collapsed Ecole Guatemala. "It will take a long time to rebuild it."

More than 80 percent of the 5,000 schoolhouses in Port-au-Prince were destroyed or significantly damaged in the Jan. 12 earthquake. Last week, some primary and secondary schools outside of the capital city opened their doors to students for the first time since the quake. But the Ministry of Education says schools in Port-au-Prince and other areas affected by the earthquake won't open again until March. And some educators say even that is a lofty goal. In the meantime, makeshift schools are springing up in the encampments that shelter children and their families.

OREGON: The worst recession in 70 years is turning into an energy-saving boon for tiny and remote rural schools in Oregon as well as the state's poorest people. Federal economic stimulus money is paying for new energy-efficient lights and windows in schools that have not been modernized since they were built after World War II, and in houses and apartments where people struggle to pay their utility bills.
Nationwide, the Obama administration has dedicated $5 billion to weatherizing low-income housing and $3.1 billion to energy upgrades in public buildings under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Oregon's share is $38 million a year for three years for weatherizing low-income housing and $42 million a year for three years for energy upgrades in schools and other public buildings.

Stimulus-funded energy projects have been slower to be realized than, say, highway paving projects, but that is because the paving projects were already planned, while many of the energy programs had to be designed from scratch, said Brian Shipley, deputy chief of staff to Gov. Ted Kulongoski. About 200 schools and other public buildings will benefit from stimulus projects, said Oregon Department of Energy spokeswoman Ann Grim. That works out to 87 jobs created, and 306 jobs retained, under spending formulas.

Though major grants have been awarded, such as $1 million for geothermal energy development at Lakeview schools, many of the first projects coming to fruition have been at small rural schools. Long Creek School District in the Blue Mountains south of Pendleton is typical. Founded in the 1890s, its best days were in the post-World War II timber boom. The last lumber mill in town shut down about 8 years ago. The school now has about 75 students, so small they have to team up with two other schools to field one eight-man football team. Even with just six teachers and a few other staff, the school is the biggest employer in the town of 200 people.

With a federal stimulus grant of just $18,673, Long Creek leveraged about $50,000 to install energy-efficient fluorescent lights controlled by occupancy sensors. Their local utility gave a matching grant, and they sold off $20,000 worth of business energy tax credits for $12,000. The lights are saving them about $7,500 on a power bill that typically runs $45,000 a year, said Roy Durfee, who doubles as principal and superintendent — savings that are helping them keep one of their six teachers. "We would have had to delve into some pretty tough reserves to keep that teaching position going another year," said Durfee. "This way we're able to do that without any real challenge."

Lighting contractor Keith Williams drove over from the Willamette Valley town of Creswell to do the job, hiring a couple local electricians from the surrounding area. This is his first stimulus-funded job, and he hopes to land two more at small schools in Eastern Oregon. It is not a big part of his business, but he sees it as making a big difference for small rural schools. "Everybody is looking at stimulus (to see) where that job is being created now," he said. "You've created three jobs to get a project on a short-term basis. But on a long-term basis you saved a job. That's a different way of looking at it."

ILLINOIS: The Springfield School District’s dilemma about how to pay for new high schools and other construction projects provides a good example of the consequences of Congress’ decision last year to slash the federal stimulus package. There isn’t a single dollar for the district in last year’s $29 billion state capital improvements bill. Why didn’t the district get anything at the same time hundreds of school improvement or construction projects elsewhere in Illinois were funded?
As a result of the cuts to the federal stimulus, the Springfield School District lost out on $6.4 million in funding in 2009, while Ball-Chatham lost $239,700, according to an analysis of proposed stimulus spending produced by ProPublica, a nonprofit investigative journalism organization. The stimulus was supposed to staunch the budget pain felt by state and local governments by eliminating the need for tax increases that could exacerbate the recession. It also was supposed to take care of neglected infrastructure.
The state capital bill was passed for similar reasons and also could have provided funds. The bill contains hundreds of millions of dollars for hundreds of other school districts, charter schools and private and religious schools. The money will be spent on items like new school construction, renovations and improvements, new science labs, athletic fields and locker rooms.

But here in Sangamon County, taxpayers may be asked to vote for a 1 percent countywide sales tax. The catalyst for the tax increase is the Springfield School District’s $230 million plan to build a new Springfield High School, rebuild Lanphier High School, renovate parts of Southeast High School and other capital projects. Such a tax increase would bring the sales tax within Springfield’s city limits to a whopping 9 percent. The sales tax in Chicago is 10.25 percent and will drop to 9.75 percent later this year.

At this time a year ago, the U.S. House and Senate were about to pass competing versions of the much-criticized economic stimulus package. The House bill contained $16 billion for the construction of new schools. The Senate bill contained nothing. Self-important senators insisted the compromise bill be brought below $800 billion, an arbitrary figure plucked out of the sky. Members of Congress seemed to think that the $792 billion bill, instead of, say, a $1 trillion piece of legislation, would somehow provoke less outrage. Politics mattered more than getting the right mix of spending and tax cuts to get the economy going again. At the behest of Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, all of the funding for school construction was cut from the final version. A weak compromise allowed states to use money that they received to stabilize their budgets to instead repair existing schools. There was no money for new school construction, despite $127 billion to $268 billion worth of need nationally, according to the American Society of Civil Engineers.

Needless to say, the state won’t be giving the Springfield School District a cut of its stabilization money for construction. But it could have given the district a cut of the education spending in the capital bill. Obviously, the $6.4 million Springfield schools missed out on from the feds wouldn’t have built a new high school. But the district has other capital costs, such as upgrading heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems at elementary schools. Every dollar from such state and federal capital programs is one less the district would have had to spend from its reserves or to ask for from local taxpayers.

School construction is an excellent way to stimulate economic growth because it provides construction-related jobs. New school buildings will be used for decades and are a one-time federal expense that doesn’t need continued funding. Of the $580 billion in non-tax cut stimulus funds, $251 billion has not been spent. Meanwhile, President Barack Obama and Congress are talking about a new jobs bill. They either should review the spending remaining in the original stimulus bill and make school construction a priority or include it in any new jobs bill.

FLORIDA: If the Broward School District had listened to Charlene Rebecca Blackwood instead of firing her, could some of its construction department problems have been solved a long time ago? Some think so. "She was a prophet. What do they do to a lot of prophets? Try and silence them," said community activist Charlotte Greenbarg, president of The Broward Coalition, a group of condo and homeowner associations. The school district disagrees, calling Blackwood a bully to her co-workers and an ineffective leader — characterizations she vehemently denies.
In November, after a four-year legal battle, the School Board agreed to settle. It awarded Blackwood $217,500 in back pay and attorney fees, and its own legal fees totaled $145,000. The settlement comes during a severe budget crisis when the district has had to cut teachers, electives, supplies and renovations.

Her saga began more than a decade ago when, as a senior supervisor of building inspectors, she began complaining that new schools were opened despite "life safety" code violations. That contractors were allowed to walk away without fixing problems. And that leaky school roofs were being repaired improperly, leading to mold and mildew. She warned that some schools that doubled as hurricane shelters had equipment on the roofs, such as air conditioners, that were not properly secured and posed a hazard in a storm. The district took steps to fix the problem, but Blackwood said it dismissed other issues, such as opening schools prematurely.

Today, years after they opened, scores of schools still are operating without documents showing they meet code. "They didn't want an effective building department," Blackwood said in a recent interview. "They wanted to neutralize the inspectors so the contractors could not be interfered with in doing their construction. Whether it was bad or not, they didn't care." Recent internal audits back up some of her concerns. They show inflated construction costs, overbillings, and millions of dollars wasted to fix mistakes in building designs.

GEORGIA: The chief operating officer for Carrollton City Schools told the Board of Education the system should receive final approval from the Georgia Department of Education to participate in the Qualified School Construction Bond program in the next couple of weeks. “We did get preliminary approval back in December,” said CEO Steve Spofford. The school system applied for permission to sell $8 million in construction bonds, which were created through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, to build a two-story, 32-classroom wing on the middle school, renovate all the bathrooms at the high school and renovate the gymnasium.
The state has a $250 million share in the Qualified School Construction Bond program, but it’s not money that has been given to the state. The schools borrow the money by selling the bonds through the program, but rather than paying interest on the bonds the investors get a tax credit provided through the ARRA. The money can be borrowed for up to 16 years and the system can decide when during that time to start paying the money back. But once it does start it must make equal payments into a sinking fund until the debt is paid in full.

“It really becomes a no-brainer,” said Steve Spofford, who has been handling the application process for the system. “The beauty of that is that not only do we get ... zero interest, all the money that we put in the sinking fund during that time, whenever we start paying it back, we get all the interest that’s attached to it. So, it’s money that we’re paying back, but while it’s sitting in the sinking fund, the interest is coming back to us.” The school system has already approached the Development Authority about selling the bonds and received the go ahead. The rest of the process should move along quickly, he said.

For the program, the school system was required to fund projects that had not already been started and could be completed within three years. That means it has to move pretty quickly. The system has been working on plans for its projects – a $500,000 renovation of the high school bathrooms, a $2 million renovation of the gymnasium and a $5.5 million addition to the middle school. “We’ll have those (plans) ready to submit to the state as soon as they give us the official approval,” Spofford said.

The cost of the projects are a little inflated because the system must follow federal guidelines in the Davis-Bacon Act. The payroll requirement of the act could add as much as 20 percent to the final costs, but the system is estimating it will be closer to 15 percent. It’s still a good deal because the sluggish economy has driven down the cost of construction, Spofford said. Before it starts any projects, the system will hold public meetings to gain public input about the projects. It will also have to go back before the Development Authority to get final approval. Then it’s a matter of issuing the bonds.

MISSISSIPPI: Hattiesburg Public School District wants to take advantage of a second round of the Qualified School Construction Bonds program funded through federal stimulus dollars. School board members voted to apply through the Mississippi Department of Education for a second school construction bond. The district received a $3 million school construction bond in the first round.

The stimulus-driven initiative allows districts to borrow interest-free money to use for construction, rehabilitation or repair of public school facilities. Frank Aderholdt, the district's director of financial services, said money received in the first round is being used for roof work, repairing the running track and parking lot improvements. The funds have to be used on school construction projects in compliance with specific federal standards. Aderholdt said district authorities would be notified sometime later this year if its request was approved.

OREGON: The Dallas School District announced the sale of $8.6 million in "Qualified School Construction Bonds" on Jan. 28. The bonds will provide for capital expenditures needed to maintain district school facilities. The district was one of the first in Oregon to participate in the program, gaining access to low-cost borrowing that extends property tax dollars. District voters approved the bond last fall.

NATIONAL: There is a new trend popping up across the nation in schools that are not only "going green" they truly are green...from their passive solar heating to their intense environmental coursework. And rather than limiting environmental education to an occasional workshop or class project, these schools lace environmental themes into every aspect of their curriculum.
These green schools, as they are being called, go beyond recycling and tree planting to teaching kids about problems like sooty air, environmental legislation, and social justice. Some schools, like The Urban Assembly School for Green Careers, a high school in Manhattan, New York, focus on teaching hands-on skills like installing insulation and solar panels to prepare students for entering the work force after graduation or pursuing college degrees in fields like engineering.

And while all of the green schools discuss broad topics like recycling and global warming, many also focus is on local issues that directly affect the students and their families, like contamination of a local waterway or the razing of low-income housing. The Green Charter Schools Network, based in Madison, Wisconsin, says it has counted about 200 green charter schools nationwide. According to New York's Department of Education, at least 11 traditional and charter green schools at varying grade levels have opened in the last six years in that state alone.

NORTH CAROLINA: The Lexington City Board of Education received an update on school projects that will be paid for through U.S. Qualified School Construction Bonds, part of the federal stimulus package. The money will be used to add two classrooms at Southwest Elementary School and to renovate a former shop area at Lexington Middle School. Bids are scheduled in the upcoming months for both projects. Southwest’s project is planned to be finished by Christmas break and is estimated at $590,000. The LMS renovations include the creation of classrooms, restrooms and storage areas for the Jacket Academy calculated to cost $335,000 and be finished by mid-August. The academy is housed in mobile classroom units now.

WALES: A Welsh primary school says it is set to become one of the greenest in the country with the opening of the first of three outdoor classrooms. And the eco makeover of the eight-acre site at Edwardsville primary near Merthyr Tydfil is not just about recycling and compost bins. Free range chickens, a mini market garden, and an orchard are all planned.
Deputy head teacher Jonathan Rigby said: "Children should know how to grow food, how to harvest it and cook." He added: "It's about preparing the next generation to be more self-reliant, children will learn the skills that many say will be needed in a world where energy is in short supply and more food will be grown locally."

The school is already recognised as an example of good green practice and over the last five years it has had over £100,000 in grant funding which has paid for the outdoor classrooms, environment and development projects, the permaculture design and a gardener. A low-maintenance mixed fruit and perennial vegetable garden has already been planted at the school. At the centre there is what looks like a house for hobbits but is actually an eco-play shelter made from locally sourced materials. These include cob, a traditional building material made of sub soil and straw, lime rending and a living sedum roof.

Some pupils at Edwardsville already have weekly lessons in horticulture, linking into other subjects including maths, history, geology, biology and ecology. The outdoor classroom design incorporates permaculture principles - a way of working with nature to create a super-productive landscape.
Consultant Michele Fitzsimmons has been working closely with the school on the design. She said: "The design is a mixture of unusual food plants which can be foraged freely by the children, for example edible honeysuckle, conventional vegetable growing and flowering plants to increase the beauty of the playgrounds and provide food for insects. "As well as this I have also designed in playing opportunities which are centred on free imaginative play and move away from overly-constructed and designed play - the idea being that free play is essential for children to learn social skills and also offers a complete break from the more constructed learning activities in the classroom." Children will also be able to collect eggs and observe the chickens in an area planned.

VIRGINIA: The Fairfax County School Board has set a goal of renovating school buildings every 25 to 30 years, but in reality, most schools are waiting approximately 40 years before their physical plants receive an upgrade. School Board members unanimously approved a capital improvement plan Jan. 21 that included many school renovation projects several years overdue.
When Franklin-Sherman Elementary’s renovation project gets underway this year, it will be the McLean school’s first total facilities overhaul since it was built in 1952. Freedom Hill Elementary, which opened in Vienna in 1949, is scheduled to undergo its first "full renovation" in 2010 as well. It is not clear yet when a building like West Springfield High School, originally built in the 1960s and approximately 100 students over capacity, would see an upgrade to its physical plant, though a renovation is unlikely to get underway any time during the next decade.

With little help from the Commonwealth of Virginia, the school system relies almost entirely on the Fairfax County government for money to complete new school construction, building additions and renovations. Both school staff and county government officials agree that the county has been generous when it comes to school building funding. But what the county can afford to do is simply not enough to keep up with the demand for renovations. Currently, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors issues bonds annually for $155 million worth of school capital projects. The system’s staff said it would need approximately $225 million per year to ensure an overhaul of each facility every three decades. By contrast, School Board member Dan Storck (Mount Vernon) has said that Montgomery County, Md. spends approximately $100 million more per year on school construction than Fairfax, even though the suburban Maryland school system has 30,000 fewer students.

An increase in student enrollment has also put extra pressure on Fairfax’s limited school construction funding pool. The school system has seen enrollment grow by 8,500 students since the beginning of the 2006-07 school year, gaining 3,300 students from September 2008 to September 2009 alone. The boom in the student population is expected to continue, with an estimated 11,500 more students in the school system in the fall of 2014 than were enrolled in this past fall. An increase in students means that Fairfax schools must use more of its construction funding to build new schools and to add extra wings onto older school buildings.

Some elected officials are looking at ways to address the school system’s capital needs. The school system’s capital funding is supposed to fall from $155 million to $130 million annually in 2012, but Supervisor Patrick Herrity (R-Springfield) has proposed keeping the school construction and renovation dollars at their current level. But keeping the school facilities’ funding elevated means that other county facilities would have to go without renovations and some other government buildings are also in dire need of repairs, according to Fairfax County executive Tony Griffin. Herrity has also suggested the school system try to "fast track" some of its construction and renovation projects during the current down swing in the economy, when the price of building material is lower and construction companies are hungry for work.

OHIO: The Whitehall City School District received a major blow this week to plans for the construction of the new high school building. Operating under the pretext that the district was permitted to incorporate the current auditorium, gym and auxiliary gym in its new construction plans, as promised to voters in 2008, the district said it was blindsided when it learned that the three areas cannot be included in the new design.
Superintendent Judyth Dobbert-Meloy held a hastily called special board meeting Monday, Feb. 1, to inform board members of the change, spelling out the ramifications -- including the possibility of additional costs.

Throughout the levy campaign in 2008, district officials said they were told by voters over and over that they wanted to keep the auditorium and auxiliary gym, in particular, which would not be replicated in the new high school design. Because part of the funding for the district's five new schools is coming from the state through the Ohio School Facilities Commission, the state dictates the basic requirements for the new builds. Under the state commission, new school buildings do not include a dedicated auditorium, but a combined cafeteria and auditorium. A new gym would be included in the new design. The district's current auxiliary gym, which was built around 1990, won't be paid for in full until 2013.
Dobbert-Meloy called this week's news a setback. The district called in two of its contracted architects to discuss alternatives with board members, who were clearly upset with the news. The commission said the district can keep the three facilities, but they must be separate from the new construction. After the new high school building is finished and approved by the state, then the district is free to connect the two in some way. "That's a good thing," Dobbert-Meloy told board members. "We'd have the benefit of the new building with the existing space in the back." But she said the state's suggestion does not come without its own challenges. First, by keeping the existing auditorium, gym and auxiliary gym, architects are left with a much smaller space on which to build the new high school, said Charles Nelson, an architect with Legat & Kingscott who has been working with the district. In fact, the new building would need to be much closer to South Yearling Road than previously anticipated, possibly extending farther north toward the district's administration building as well. The new building would need to be two stories, possibly three, in order to fit in all the needed academic space.

TENNESSEE: The Williamson County School District was among 20 school districts to receive a grant through the Energy Efficient Schools Initiative. Williamson County recently received $59,125 out of the $665,834 it has been awarded. The grants are to be used for various projects that improve energy efficiency, including lighting, heating, air conditioning and kitchen equipment, said Sandy Cunningham, an EESI program coordinator. County school officials are staging their grants, which is a smart way to use the money, Cunningham said. "They can spend that in any facility, whether it's the bus garage, the central office or a school," Cunningham said.

Lawmakers developed the initiative in 2008 with about $90 million in excess lottery money, Cunningham said. Kindergarten through 12th-grade public school districts can apply for the money to improve equipment in an effort to become more energy efficient. School districts are often forced to avoid upgrading to more energy-efficient equipment, Cunningham said. The grants allow districts to assess where the need is most warranted. The $8 million funneled to districts so far has been calculated to result in $1.8 million in annual power savings. The amount of carbon dioxide reduced as a result of these projects is calculated to be 13,600 tons.

MINNESOTA: The University of Minnesota, one of the first borrowers to use the Build America Bond program last spring, enters the market with $36 million of fixed-rate, new-money bonds that will again tap the federal stimulus program.

NEW JERSEY: Sanitary porcelain technologies are no laughing matter when it comes to the environment. Here’s why. Even adults tend to smirk and giggle a bit when discussing, ahem, “sanitary porcelain” but, when one looks at their ecological impact, there is not much to smirk and giggle about. The traditional urinal in a men’s or boy’s room subject to high traffic can consume thousands of gallons of water a year.
At the Jan. 27 meeting of the Watchung Board of Education, Charles Neiss, Chairman of the Board’s Grounds and Buildings Committee, reported on the results of investigations and tours of nearby facilities, and specifically “no-flush” urinal technology that may just save the district thousands of gallons in water bills each year. The investigations were part of a state-mandated and board approved long term facilities plan for the School District. Part of the district’s plan calls for renovations to several of the rest rooms in Valley View Elementary School, which are in need of renovation. In furtherance of the plan two years ago to focus on green goals wherever possible, the Board Committee asked the architect for the project, Kellen Chapin of Chapin Architectural Services for recommendations on how to make the rest room renovations greener.

As it turns out, the humble urinal in its traditional design is one of the most ecologically unfriendly installations in the men’s restroom. At the outset, the committee expected the “green” solution would be in the form of so-called gray water (the waste water from hand washing, for example, re-used to flush toilets and urinals). But, according to Chapin, those solutions are only cost effective for new construction, where the technology is fully integrated into a larger building or complex of buildings. He immediately recommended the no-flush technology. The concept of a waterless, no-flush urinal challenges perceptions of those who think that the inability to flush will lead to all types of sanitary and aesthetic problems. Mr. Neiss and other committee members were at first hesitant. “With no flush we immediately had a concern that there would be aesthetic and cleaning issues,” noted Neiss. “From what we observed, at the two facilities we looked at, that’s not the case,” said Neiss, adding that he toured the Willow School in Gladstone and the Meadowlands where the technology had been implemented. According to Neiss, a visit to the Willow School, an avante garde private school that uses numerous green technologies, saved 45,000 gallons of water per urinal, per year, through the use of no-flush urinals, a significant savings for any owner that wishes to save both money and the planet at the same time.

Two technologies have been developed around the no-flush concept, one involving oil in the P traps of the urinals, and the other a replaceable cartridge technology. Neiss noted that the committee is currently favoring the oil-based solution based on the committee’s perception that it is the more ecologically and economically friendly of the two solutions.
In addition to the no-flush technology, the renovations are expected to implement other green solutions, such as motion sensor light switches, fluorescent bulbs, and stall elements made from recycled materials.

HAITI: The school's owner clashes with post-earthquake squatters who have no place to call home. Nearby, young students eagerly wait to regain one normal aspect of their lives.
Monday was the first day that schools in Haiti could reopen after the earthquake, which was centered near the capital, Port-au-Prince. The entire national school system -- already among the poorest in the world -- had been shut down, although schools in much of the country were not directly affected. Most schools in Port-au-Prince are eyeing a March restart, at least those that can find a safe place to hold classes. An estimated 70% to 80% of the schools in the capital were damaged or destroyed, and no one is yet sure whether the rest are safe to enter.

David's school, known as Plein Soleil (Full Sun), was supposed to be the exception. But nothing is easy in Haiti these days. Plein Soleil is an all-boys elementary school, opened in 1992 by a French couple, Michel and Francoise Vaillaud, to serve a unique population: Children who live in a shantytown in a narrow ravine that runs through some of the city's most affluent neighborhoods.
The school was designed by two Haitian architects who relied on internationally accepted building codes, and was built with both strength and flexibility in mind, the better to withstand Haiti's frequent hurricanes, and, as it turns out, an earthquake. The school rode out the January quake with only a few hairline cracks in its concrete floor. After an inspection, Michel Vaillaud decided it was sound.

Although the Haitian government had said that no schools in Port-au-Prince could reopen, Vaillaud said he spoke to Education Ministry officials Sunday and got the go-ahead. Only about half of Haitian children attend primary school, according to UNICEF; the numbers drop sharply among higher grades. According to the international organization Save the Children, only 2% of Haitians graduate from high school.

On Monday, David, who is in fourth grade, showed up for school at 7 a.m., a half-hour early. He was eager, he said, because all he had been doing was sitting around in a tent. "I miss all my teachers and the work that I used to do, what I used to learn," he said. He had an air of sadness, exacerbated by a welt under one eye. David said he and his mother were home when the quake struck, and they dashed out of their house before it went down. The school was not quite as he had left it. A group of people who had lost their homes, perhaps a couple of dozen, had taken over the playground. They had been camping there since shortly after the quake. To prepare for the resumption of school, Vaillaud had asked them to leave. They refused. They offered a compromise: They would stay away during the school day, as long as they could sleep there at night. Vaillaud said no.

ILLINOIS: A mix of visiting teachers, college representatives and architects for schools visited Niles North High School to learn more about District 219's new Science Technology Engineering Mathematics labs built last summer. The STEM labs were carved out of existing space at Niles North and Niles West high schools that were remodeled. The labs are identical at each school in terms of the equipment. The only difference is Niles West is more of a rectangle shape and Niles North's lab is square.

The STEM Inquiry and Research class is a non-traditional class. It's a hybrid class where the students and teacher meet face-to-face every day, but the content is online. It's a self-pacing, multi-level course that can be repeated.
"I like it a lot more here because I'm getting more in-depth attention and I feel like I'm freer to do more of anything that I want. The limitations that I would have in a regular classroom aren't really presented. We have tons of equipment that helps you get very specific results," sophomore Haley Bubley said. The lab has micropipettes, a vortex mixer and incubators. The class has many benefits including improving the way students learn and think.