By BARRETT NEWKIRK
ANDERSON — A group of Madison County officials is traveling to California this week with the goal of bringing back ideas for improving local high schools.
The Madison County Community Foundation received a $50,000 grant from the National Governors Association to study models for high-school reform, and about half of that money is funding a four-day trip for 26 people to schools in Napa and Sacramento, Calif., that are part of the New Technology High School program, said Sally DeVoe, the foundation’s executive director.
The remaining funding will help the foundation study alternative high-school models in the Midwest and state, she said.
More than 30 high schools around the country, including three in Indiana, participate in the New Technology program, which offers students a curriculum focused on project-based learning, collaboration and technology.
DeVoe said the program is one model that could someday be implemented in Madison County, and so representatives from all five county public school systems are traveling to California.
Larry Quarles, who will become Anderson High School’s principal this summer, and Mark Finger, principal at Highland High School, will represent Anderson Community Schools.
“I hope to find out some ways that we can approach students differently,” Finger said. “With changing technology and the changing economy, we need to find some methods that work differently.”
Also traveling to California are Anderson Mayor Kris Ockomon and other local business and civic leaders.
The Community Foundation, citing safety concerns and privacy rights, declined to release a complete list of those going on the trip.
The group leaves Tuesday and returns Friday.
DeVoe said the goal of the trip is to foster talk about new ways to improve local education.
“When you get groups of people together who don’t usually work in the same venues, then we have an opportunity to exchange ideas,” she said.
Rob Sparks, executive director for the Cooperation for Economic Development, said he’s participating because the quality of education is critically important to producing an attractive work force.
“We obviously have some challenges set up to get our kids the best opportunities in the future,” he said. “People look at the test scores and look at the graduation rates, and I think we have a real interest in doing whatever we can to help the kids.”
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