Superintendent Celebrates District's $50,000 Grant

Editor's note: North Canton City Schools Superintendent Michael Gallina is thrilled that the Hoover Foundation has awarded a $50,000 grant to the district for online course offerings. Here is his reaction:

How many times can a school district find a way to say “thank you”?  That is the exact position that we are in as we receive yet another gracious gift from the Hoover Foundation.  Truly, there are not many communities in the nation who have such a partner in the academic, athletic, or the art worlds of their school district.  The Hoover Foundation is a huge blessing to our children and community in all three of these areas!

Our latest grant is to fund a new academic option for our students.  This option is called the Florida Virtual Curriculum.  This curriculum includes over 42 courses that can be taken in an on-line format and facilitated by our very own staff.  The goal of this new program is to continue to provide the large and varied list of course offerings to our high school students, while at the same time being able to offer even more unique courses without having to have a minimum number of students in such a course.

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Currently, we try to staff specific courses by having enough students to justify the course in terms of staffing and materials.  In this new format, we will be able to offer courses in a variety of delivery formats.  We can have an entire class take a course using the curriculum in the Florida Virtual menu.

We can have a class take a “blended course”, which includes part of the time in the classroom and part of the time on-line.  And finally, we can offer courses completely on-line.  The new grant allows us to purchase the coursework and then “own” it with upgrades in the years to come.  Truly, the Hoover Foundation has helped to make “academic history” with this grant!

That is not all!!  We are now able to consider using the Florida Virtual Curriculum and our staff facilitators to include groups of students that we have not reached in the past.  These groups would include home-schooled students, students who have left our school district for charter schools, students who have left our school district for other on-line academies, and students who would need an “alternative” setting that would not include a day-to-day attendance at Hoover High School because of a behavior or handbook infraction that would limit their physical attendance at school.

Finally, as our students ready themselves for their university or work experience, as well as their own choice to take college coursework via an on-line option, our use of the Florida Virtual Curriculum will have enhanced these students’ experience with an on-line option.  Because our future world will behave in such an environment, we are excited to be able to provide such an experience to our students before they leave high school!

Truly, the Hoover Foundation has made history with this latest “grant blessing”!  They have provided our students with an academic option that will serve them many times over as they embark upon a world that we have not yet seen!  THANK YOU!  THANK YOU!  THANK YOU!