NE Regional School of Biotechnology & Agriscience Overcomes Transportation Hurdles
Earlier this week we heard from Hal Davis, principal of the Northeast Regional School of Biotechnology and Agriscience on getting their third year underway next week, as well as their move from the Vernon James Research & Extension Center in Plymouth to a former middle/high school in Jamesville. Davis says some of their goals haven’t been met, but then, they’ve set the bar very high:
“We always have very high goals, so we will always fall just a bit short of them. Academically we want all of our students to be successful so that carries over to college. We are a bit behind the learning curve on some things. A lot of our kids come to us with no technology experience at all and taking an online class is new to them and their parents. So with the assistance of the Gold Leaf Foundation, we have been able to hire someone to assist with that entire process, to make that program more successful.”
NE Regional draws students from a five-county area, and Davis says that in and of itself creates some transportation issues:
“We cant run busses to each nook and cranny in each county. We have a regional pick up system where there are 5-6 stops in each county. Then the busses come into our campus.”
Since the school operates more days than regular schools, Davis says they’ve had to become innovative to get kids into the classroom on those extra 15 days:
“The biggest challenge with transportation, is that the state normally reimburses LEAs for 185 days of transportation cost, but since we operate 200 days, that is 15 extra days that we have to find resources to operate the school without state funds. So we do satellite days where the kids in each county may meet in one location and we send teachers to them.”
We’ll wrap up with Hal Davis, principal of NE Regional School of Biotechnology and Agriscience tomorrow on Today’s Topic.
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A native of the Texas Panhandle, Rhonda was born and raised on a cotton farm where she saw cotton farming evolve from ditch irrigation to center pivot irrigation and harvest trailers to modules. After graduating from Texas Tech University, she got her start in radio with KGNC News Talk 710 in Amarillo, Texas.
