USD 397 head invited to the White House for a private consultation

By ROWENA PLETT

Staff writer

Jerri Kemble, superintendent of Centre USD 397, traveled earlier this spring to Washington, D.C., to confer with other administrators who are engaged in virtual learning. It was her second annual trip for that purpose. She discovered that Centre is on the map of the nation’s top advisers.

The National Network of Digital Schools sponsored the conference.

Kemble said the administrators shared “powerful and inspiring” stories about what was working well in their districts.

“We heard stories about students in an adobe hut on a reservation getting their high school diploma through the virtual school, students who had organ transplants and were living in the hospital and still getting their education in the virtual world, and pregnant teens opting to stay home and learn online,” she said.

She told the group about three students in the Centre school district that were not finding success in the normal setting and are successful in the virtual program.

The administrators met with senators and representatives to lobby for reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. Kemble said she pushed for “taking the zip code out of education.”

“For Centre, that means that even though we are located in rural Kansas, our students should still be given the same opportunities that students in affluent districts have,” she said. “This means a variety of classes should be available. We can offer this wide variety through virtual education. Our students now have the opportunity to choose from 250 online courses their junior or senior year. This allows them to take classes that may not be offered here in our school district.”

Kemble said she learned four things in the nation’s capital.

First, the White House is watching the Centre school district. Last year she and 10 other superintendents met at the White House with Terrell McSweeney, one of the top domestic advisers to Vice President Joe Biden. Kemble shared her vision of “taking the zip code out of education.”

Prior to Kemble’s arrival this year, McSweeney met with one of the group’s lobbyists and requested a meeting with Kemble to hear about how the first year of Centre’s virtual program was going.

McSweeney told Kemble she was intrigued with this small rural school district in central Kansas and was listening to its story. She was impressed with the board of education’s vision and ability to implement a cutting-edge virtual program for its own students as well as students across Kansas.

Second, the landscape of education is changing. McSweeney noted that legislators “get it;” they know that virtual education will be a vital component of the future of education.

“If we stay status quo, we will become irrelevant and will be replaced,” Kemble said.

Third, education is important to President Barrack Obama and Arne Duncan, his administration’s Secretary of Education, and it will stay in the forefront.

They believe innovation is important, Kemble said, but the slow economy is a limiting factor.

“We were told things will get better in 2018,” she said facetiously.

Fourth, the Centre school district is on the right track and should take criticism in stride.

“We are pioneers, and sometimes pioneers are not loved,” she said.

The Kansas Online Learning Program hosted by Centre receives the Kansas base state aid per pupil plus .05 percent. Out of that money, the district pays teachers, buys the curriculum, provides each student with a laptop, printer, and scanner, and provides tutoring.

Lincoln Interactive provides the curriculum and pays for advertising it provides. The program will remain unchanged for the 2011-12 school year.

“We are excited to know that a transplant recipient is looking into our program,” Kemble said. “She is in the hospital a lot and we think we can meet her needs through our program.”