By Staff
Melissa Cason
Franklin County Times
VINA – Vina School will be make history next semester as they become the first school to ever offer instrumental music through classes the ACCESS distance learning program.
Principal James Pharr said beginning in January, the class will be taught by music teacher and band director Marion Beasley.
"This has never been done before," Pharr said. "Thanks to Mr. Beasley will be the first to offer this course through the ACCESS program."
Beasley will be teaching students from all over the globe how to play the guitar through the ACCESS program, which will also allow Vina students to take courses not available locally such as French, calculus, and marine sciences.
In order for the school to qualify for the ACCESS program, Pharr said they had to teach at least one course using the program.
The program will allow students to take a variety of courses through web-based instruction, along with real time lectures from different parts of the world.
The school received a grant for $85,000 from the state to implement this program into their curriculum.
"This is the wave of the future," Pharr said.
Pharr added programs like ACCESS will revolutionize the education process, making it easier for more students to get a quality education regardless of where they are from.
"We want to give our students the best possible start to go out into the world and succeed," Pharr said. "We need to express a sincere thank you to those who helped make this possible for our school."
Those people include Bill Moss, Gary Williams, Randy Hester, Sandy Guinn, Tim Burks, Richard Townsend, Marion Beasley and Lisa Franklin.
In addition to those instrumental in bringing the technology to Vina, Pharr said that a special thank you should go out to Mr. Graben and his Building Construction Class, Paul Clingan and Justin Elrod.
"Without these people, this [classroom] would not be possible," Pharr said.
The construction class and volunteers worked for about five weeks to provide a place to house the newly acquired technology for the ACCESS program.
"This room was a (home economics) room with stoves, sinks, counters, water and gas lines," Pharr said. "They did a fantastic job of getting this room ready for the equipment."