School districts work with service cooperative to offer distance learning BY LINDA VANDERWERF West Central Tribune
Stephanie Strenge
Teaching and learning program administrator for Southwest West Central service cooperative
Carrie Thomas
Willmar Director of Teaching and Learning
Bill Adams
New London-Spicer Superintendent
18 | WEST CENTRAL TRIBUNE - OCTOBER 2021
Jeff Holm
Willmar Superintendent
Minnesota required every public school district to offer a distance learning option for its students during the first full school year of the pandemic. When schools opened this fall for in-person learning, they were no longer required to offer an off-site option. Though some families still wanted it, many school districts were not equipped to offer distance learning to a potentially small number of students. A distance learning program needs approval from the Minnesota Department of Education, which can be a long process. An alternative for families might have been an online school, but the Southwest West Central Service Cooperative is helping area school districts find a middle ground. SWWC offers STARRS Online Academy, a K-12 program that 39 school districts are using this school year. The co-op offers education and administrative services to school districts and communities in 18 counties in southwestern Minnesota. STARRS stands for Students Together Achieving Responsibility, Respect, Safety. The program also offers other educational programs for a number of districts. The online academy is a supplemental program and doesn’t award a diploma, said Stephanie Strenge, teaching and learning program administrator. Students in the program are counted in their home districts’ enrollment, and the districts receive state aid for them. Schools pay a fee based on students’ credits. Classes are taught by certified teachers to meet state standards. “Originally, it was to help offer classes that smaller districts weren’t able to offer within their district,” Strenge said. “Now it has grown, and we’re working with districts and families that want to continue distance learning,” she added. “Our mission and our goal is to help support our member districts,” she said. “We’re supplemental in nature, so that requires a partnership with the home district.”
