POWERS — At North Central Area Schools (NCA), a new superintendent is pleased to introduce a new system for children learning at home. Superintendent Travis Depuydt, who stepped into the role on July 1 but has been working in education in the area for 11 years, explained that kids enrolled in the North Central Online Program will have access to the same benefits and opportunities as traditional students.

“We understand the importance of in-person education and the impact that it has on positive student outcomes. But we also understand that education is not a one-size-fits-all model,” Depuydt said.

Prior to taking the job at North Central, Depuydt was the principal at Carney-Nadeau Public School and most recently — for the last three years — served as the junior high and high school principal at Bark River-Harris Schools. The former Director of Online Learning and Career Readiness at Bark River-Harris Schools, Amanda Norkoli, has also made the leap over to North Central after helping get the online program at Bark River off the ground.

Recognizing that some students might thrive more in an environment other than a classroom, but that available resources for home-schooling can be inconsistent and lackluster, NCA developed a program aimed at giving remote learners access to a viable curriculum, communication with teachers, and, if they so choose, chances to socialize with other youngsters.

“Those families and students that take part in the North Central Online Program would have access to athletics, extracurricular activities, dual enrollment, our CTE (career and technical education) program, our food service program, as well as mental health services,” Depuydt said proudly.

“This program is especially beneficial for those students that would like an option beyond the traditional classroom setting,” added Norkoli, now the director of online learning at NCA. “When a student enrolls in our online program, they get the benefit of learning on their own schedule, but also get the benefits of a small school environment, including individualized academic support … I also hope to utilize our online program for credit recovery and summer programming purposes.”

Credit recovery directly through NCA is one goal of the program, said Depuydt, because “we’re going to be able to utilize our own teachers, where in the past, we’ve had to outsource that to other programs.”

The online program is prepared to go for this upcoming school year of 2024 to 2025. Both Depuydt and Norkoli are excited to offer the curriculum to at-home learners in their community and beyond.

“There’s not really a limit, per se,” Depuydt said. “Obviously, school of choice is a thing, and so it’s not specifically designated to just students in Menominee County. … If they’re interested, any of our neighboring counties could take part.”

The superintendent continued, “history speaks for the success that our students experience when going to North Central. Just for example, our last testing cycle on the SAT test, our students performed 36% higher than the state average in ELA (English language arts) and 42% higher than the state average in math. So we think that the things that we have in place here and the support that we have in place in terms of academics are fantastic, and we’re trying to expand our reach to help students that might not be able to attend in person.”

Anyone interested in learning more about NCA’s new online program or anything else about the school can contact their main office at 906-498-7737.