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Financial problems
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Financial problems in the Laona School District are threatening its ability to participate in the Nicolet Distance Education Network.
Laona secretary Lori Enders (top) works at her desk. A television monitor above her is hooked up to a camera in the distance education classroom, where District Administrator Storm Carroll (bottom) is seated. Enders is asked to help monitor student behavior when the class is in session because there are no teachers or aides in the classroom. |
Under the program, a teacher in another district or at the Nicolet Technical College in Rhinelander teaches a class through live television monitors in a Laona classroom (right). This program allows students to take classes that would not otherwise be available in a small district. Classes include Japanese, Native American studies, advanced placement psychology, and business law, for example.
The problem in Laona is the district cannot afford to staff the NDEN classroom, so the off-site teacher must monitor student behavior via an in-class camera that feeds back to a monitor at his location.
As a backup, the Laona district has set up a monitor in front of the desk of district secretary Lori Enders (above). If the off-site teacher or Enders notice any behavior problems in the classroom, they notify District Administrator Storm Carroll.
“It’s very difficult,” Enders said. “There are just too many interruptions and things going on for me to watch up there. The phones alone are a full-time job during the school year.”
Carroll and Northern Tier UniServ-East Director Carol Nelson agree the situation has raised some serious contract questions. The union strongly believes that a teacher or teacher’s aide must be in the classroom at all times, Nelson said. It is certain to be an issue in the next round of bargaining, she said.
“You just can’t have quality education without a teacher or aide in the classroom,” Nelson said.
“The reason we’re arguing over it,” Carroll said, “is we can’t afford it.”
Posted August 26, 1998
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