Lebanon Daily News
By John Latimer
Lebanon High School will play host to a distinguished guest in the coming weeks.
Pennsylvania's Education Secretary Ron Tomalis has requested to visit the school on Dec. 20, Superintendent Marianne Bartley told the school board Monday night.
The primary reason for his visit, Bartley said, is to observe the school's new hybrid learning program in action.
This is the inaugural year of the program, sometimes called blended learning, which mixes traditional classroom learning with supervised and customized online learning. About 300 ninth- and 10th-grade students opted to participate.
Lebanon is one of a handful of schools in the state to offer hybrid learning, which proponents feel will be the future of education. Bartley has said she hopes to extend the program to all grade levels eventually.
The district's program is being done in partnership with Education Elements, a California-based company that is a pioneer in implementing hybrid learning, and Dellicker Strategies, a Kutztown technology infrastructure and application company.
Bartley said she was not certain how Tomalis came to know that Lebanon was offering hybrid learning but suspected that Rep. Mauree Gingrich and Sen. Mike Folmer may have played a role.
Bartley also noted that Education Elements and Dellicker Strategies have made presentations to representatives of the Pennsylvania Department of Education.
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