The service center includes four preschool classrooms and four classes of day treatment for children who face learning challenges. It also houses the district’s gifted and talented, special needs and federal programs, along with the Minidoka Virtual Academy and technology department.

“This is so nice,” said Sandra Miller, director of federal programs.

Miller’s secretaries moved into the new center before she did, working around construction for months.

The move was accomplished in steps that included selling the old Acequia Elementary School and moving the district’s alternative school, Mount Harrison High School, from the current service center site to the south campus of the former Heyburn Elementary School last year.

The center also includes computer stations for parents to use who do not own their own computers.

“It’s nice to have all these programs in one building,” said Heyburn resident Kimberly Santos.

Michelle DeLuna, district business manager and treasurer, said $95,000 of the remodel was funded by the sale of Acequia Elementary. General funds and plant facilities funding also paid for work done so far.

“This is the first time I’ve got to tour the building,” said district Trustee Mark Sanderson. “I’m really impressed. This is going to be well utilized.”

For the rest of the article, go to Minidoka Educators Showcase New Center.

Over the past few years, the 10,500-student Bonneville Joint School District 93 has grown by about 400 students a year, and Superintendent Charles J. Shackett invested heavily in technology to attract new students. The district, based in Idaho Falls, Idaho, built an eCenter, decked out with computers, that allows high school students to take online courses from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. as it fits their schedules. And it created a virtual academy of online courses, in hopes of luring back students who had left the district to be home-schooled.

For the rest of the article, go to New E-Learning Funding Tactics Seen as Necessary