Virtual High School open 24/7 Hackettstown High will offer 250 online courses, including Chinese and medicine. Sunday, April 15, 2007 • BY LYNN OLANOFF • The Express-Times HACKETTSTOWN | A town high school student looking to take Advanced Placement computer science is out of luck. But next year, school district officials plan to make the course available, as well as Mandarin Chinese, Caribbean art history and pre-veterinary medicine. The courses will be offered without hiring any new teachers. How? The school district plans to sign up for Virtual High School, a nonprofit that offers more than 250 online courses for high school students. "It gives us a chance to add a whole slew of additional courses to really drill down to different interest levels of our kids," school board President Bruce Smith said. "For example, Mandarin Chinese. No way could you offer a class in a school of our size," he said. "Now we subscribe to this, and if there are one, two, three kids interested in Mandarin Chinese, now they can do it." District curriculum director Diane Pittenger and high school Principal Brian Purzak saw a presentation on Virtual High School in Tenafly, N.J., last fall. The Tenafly High School students liked the program's flexibility and its varied offerings. One early-riser would work on her courses at 4 a.m., Pittenger said. "They were highly academic kids looking for opportunities to enhance the curriculum," Pittenger said. Hackettstown High School will be the first local district to enroll in the program, according to Virtual High School's Web site. The program has 457 participating schools in 28 states and 35 countries. The program will cost about $16,000 for 20 students to be enrolled in each the fall and spring semesters. School district officials say they think the cost is reasonable for all the courses offered. "It's always a challenge to us to offer more for less money. This is one of the ways we felt we could do that," Pittenger said. Virtual High School offers mainly elective and Advanced Placement courses. The additional AP courses will be a great asset to students seeking more college credits, Smith said. The school district also has partnerships with Centenary College and Warren County Community College that allow students to take college courses at discounted prices. "Kids can get a head start on college credits very economically," Smith said. Reporter Lynn Olanoff can be reached at 908-475-8044 or by e-mail at lolanoff@express-times.com. © 2007 The Express-Times. Used with permission.