Grand plans to launch a "Global Academy" next fall offering high-tech classes to area high school juniors and seniors have been "scaled back tremendously" and still face big hurdles, Verona Area School District superintendent Dean Gorrell said.
Gorrell said one key question - whether students could earn both high school and college-level credits at the academy - remains unanswered.
"That's a big hangup for us," he said. "That could put a halt to the whole thing."
But Bill Reis, a former superintendent in the Middleton-Cross Plains School District hired last year to coordinate the academy, remains optimistic.
Reis said it's "highly probable" that officials at either UW-Madison or Madison Area Technical College will eventually OK the dual-credit option, though he's not sure when.
"(Those officials) have said, 'We'll do everything we can to make this happen,' and we think we'll be successful," he said. "They just have to do their due diligence."
The academy would be open to students from eight area school districts, with Verona geographically in the center. Until about a year ago, Verona officials had hoped to host the school here, but plans now call for the Academy to lease space temporarily from MATC inside the former Famous Footwear building near the corner of Gammon and Mineral Point roads in west Madison.
Last week, officials learned the Academy would need to pay $52,000 annually to lease 4,000 square feet in the building. Students would have to drive themselves to the school.
The Academy plans to offer "principles of the biomedical sciences" next fall, and if everything works out, it would expand courses into the fields of biotechnology, architecture and construction and engineering by September 2011,Reis said.
The school hopes to draw 144 students its first year and 288 in Year 2, Reis said. The anticipated cost next year is $385,000, and each district would chip in around $3,000 per student to pay for staff, equipment, teacher training and the lease.
Last Monday, Middleton school officials approved spending up to $100,000 over the next three years to send students there. Reis said he'll make a similar proposal to the Verona Area school board Monday.
Other members of the eight-district consortium include Oregon, Belleville, McFarland, Mount Horeb, Wisconsin Heights and Madison. Those districts have chipped in funds for planning but have yet to approve long-term costs. The state also granted $50,000 to help plan the school last summer.
Reis said sophomores and juniors in those districts likely will have the option next month of signing up for the Academy when the class registration period opens. The course will be listed as dual-credit, though it will also give students a chance to opt out and choose a different class later this spring if the dual-credit option doesn't pan out.
At a meeting for participating superintendents Friday, Reis said he heard support for the concept.
"I think it's semi-official at this point," he said.
The initial program in biomedicine would offer four courses over two years: "principles of biomedical sciences," "human body systems," "medical interventions" and "biomedical innovation." The classes likely would be taught by high school teachers, though experts in the field could help.
The concept dates back two years, In January 2008, Verona Area High School teachers first pitched the idea of a "Career Academy" that could pool resources between districts to offer technical training to the growing number of kids who aren't headed to four-year universities.
That's a far cry from the current idea. And Gorrell admits he's a little disappointed in how the academy has evolved, but he thinks the idea is still sound and could flourish.
"At some point the machine we ended up with doesn't look anything like what we envisioned," he said, explaining that with so many districts weighing in, the group couldn't be as "nimble" during planning as it wanted to be.
"But everything we hear from the community is in support of this kind of effort," he said. "I don't think it's a matter of if it will happen, but when."
