University to replace sheep with high school students
Utah State University will be building a high school where the sheep are, thanks to Microsoft founder Bill Gates’ father.
In the state of Utah, there are six selected sites in which the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is planning to establish the Early College High School project.
“The plan is to build the high school on the Innovation Campus, which at the moment is inhabited by sheep,” President Kermit L. Hall said. “At the moment we are on the second phase of the planning and hoping to have this project up and running in about 18 months.”
The project aids local school districts in building high schools for 500 students with interests in math, science, engineering and technology with direct support from a nearby university.
Cache County School District is one of Utah’s six sites to be supported by Utah State University. Students will be recruited from Box Elder, Cache, Logan and Rich school districts (grades 9 to 12), with a focus on low-income students, minorities and females, and other under-represented groups.
The other five projects are planned for the Granite and Salt Lake school districts with the University of Utah, the Jordan School District with Salt Lake Community College, the Ogden area with Weber State University, Provo School District with Utah Valley State College and Iron County School District with Southern Utah University.
“The project in Logan will include the recruiting of companies and businesses to participate, allowing their staff in the learning process,” Hall said. “Also, it will allow Utah State University to bring its faculty on campus into teaching roles in the high school, as well as allow those students to gain access into our laboratories, including our Space Dynamics Lab.”
A total of $500,000 is already available for planning and initial development, thanks to the Gates Foundation, the force behind the project.
“Although the project is rather new in Logan, the interests are very strong,” said Michael R. Liechty, director of applied technology. “The first meeting for the idea was held on November 2003 in which the Cache County School District has been working on making the project come true.”
Logan School District Superintendent Richard Jensen said there are still many questions that have not been answered.
“Some of these questions include how to integrate the recruited students on extracurricular activities, and the sustained ability of funds to support the project in the future,” Jensen said.
The next meeting, in which other important concerns will be discussed, will be this month.
“I have a reason to believe we will collectively, as a community, be smart enough to seize the opportunity we all worked so hard for,” Hall said. “We have received over 100 e-mails and calls from parents wanting to enroll their children. Like any project, I expect criticism, but I am very enthusiastic.”
-jiq@cc.usu.edu