Virtual High School to graduate first class

Thursday, June 2, 2005 | 11:02 a.m.

Nearly an hour after his high school's commencement rehearsal was due to start, it appeared senior Neil Hilton would be the only student to show up.

"Maybe the kids didn't understand when I said to come and pick up their caps and gowns that they had to be here physically," joked Jhone Ebert, principal of the Clark County School District's Virtual High School, which will graduate its first class June 10.

"Maybe they're logged on right now, trying to rehearse from home."

The School District has offered distance education classes for seven years, but this is the first time students could earn a diploma from the online program.

Virtual High School opened in August. About 160 students are enrolled full-time in the school, and another 7,000 students participate in everything from proficiency exam tutorials to Advanced Placement classes.

Online learning has grown in popularity in recent years as students have become more technologically savvy, home computers have become more common and school districts have embraced virtual programs as a way to reach individuals who might otherwise drop out altogether.

Currently 16 states have sponsored virtual schools and another six states have at least one charter school offering online instruction.

In addition to Virtual High, Clark County students also have the option of enrolling in Odyssey Charter School, a distance education program launched in 1999.

One difference between the district's Virtual High School and Odyssey is that the charter school's students are required to attend in-person sessions once a week, Ebert said. In the district's program students are only required to show up in person for standardized tests and final exams, Ebert said.

Vali Borg, one of the Virtual High School's English teachers, said she's gotten to know her students well despite the lack of face-to-face interaction. The students are required to log on for lectures and class discussions and are expected to answer and ask questions, Borg said.

"In a regular school so much of your time is spent on classroom management," said Borg, who has been teaching for 15 years. "You might have 30 or 40 kids and there's probably a third not participating. This way, I talk to them online and they tell me right away what they're understanding and what they're not."

The school was designed to give students at traditional campuses a place to take classes that weren't offered at their school or a way to earn needed credits.

It is also designed to be home for non-traditional students who need a school and has attracted teen parents, amateur athletes and the reigning miss Teen Nevada, Ebert said.

Hilton moved to Las Vegas about 18 months ago with his mother after a brief stay in North Carolina and several years in Spain. While he said he shares his mother's enthusiasm for travel and new places, it's sometimes made schooling difficult.

Critics of online education programs often cite the lack of social and interpersonal development for students as a drawback. But Hilton, who attended Chaparral High School for his junior year, had a different view.

"At such a huge school, if you don't open your mouth you can walk around for a long time without talking to anyone," Hilton said. "I don't see that a virtual high school is any more impersonal. It's easy to say that this program should add some sort of required social interaction, but the kind of people it attracts most likely don't want that anyway. It's best for people who are on the move and don't want a more traditional high school experience."

At the commencement rehearsal, Hilton was spared from his solo status by the late arrival of valedictorian Justine Reams, who breezed into the auditorium at Advanced Technologies Academy with her speech in hand. The two seniors practiced the processional walk, introducing guests of honor and even the grip-and-grin of the diploma hand-off.

Reams, who moved to Clark County from her native British Columbia last year, said she transferred to the online program in January after an unhappy semester at Green Valley High School. Her mother's work as a hospice nurse brought the family to Las Vegas, and Reams said she struggled with adjusting to her new hometown.

"I had to leave so much behind," Reams said. "If I was still living in my small town and going to school with all my friends I grew up with, graduation probably would have been a big deal. But I just never really felt like it (Green Valley) was my school. All I really wanted was to finish, graduate and move on."

The online program allowed Reams to graduate early. She plans to pursue a career in nursing.

In addition to Hilton and Reams, the graduating class includes: salutatorian Christopher Hack, who school administrators describe as a talented guitarist who plans to pursue a professional career in the music industry; Stephanie Goodale, who will major in economics at Nevada State College in the fall; and Denise Sullivan is planning to attend a four-year college and pursue a career in human services.

Virtual programs aren't for everyone but then neither are regular high schools, Clark County School Board President Larry Mason said.

"When we offer kids plenty of options, whether it's online classes or magnet schools or vocational training, they're more successful and ultimately so are we," Mason said. "Those are the types of programs that help kids find the relevance in what they're doing, what attracts them to stay in school."