In the Press

Most of the city’s middle school students don’t go to class within walking distance of the Government Center, where the Stamford Public Schools offices are.

But for a few Stamford eighth graders, that’s where their geometry teacher is located.

Ljiljana Djinovic teaches 15 eighth graders a high school-level geometry class from 888 Washington Boulevard. There, she takes questions from both individual students and the class, grading homework, tests and quizzes and making sure her students get their work done.

Instead of stepping onto a bus and riding to school, a student’s future commute to the classroom could be as quick as hopping out of bed and onto their home computer.

Gov. Deval Patrick recently signed the new Commonwealth Virtual Schools Act allowing the creation of up to 10 new virtual schools across the state during the next 10 years.

The state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education will authorize and oversee the public virtual schools, which will be taught by certified Massachusetts teachers.

The VHS Collaborative (VHS), a Maynard-based nonprofit provider of K-12 online learning, recently expanded its sales/marketing and operations staff with the addition of two directors.

Jim Dachos of Byfield brings nearly 20 years of experience in the education industry to his role as director of educational partnerships while Daniel Barstow of Stow, a nationally regarded science and energy education expert, joins VHS as development director.

About a dozen Cape and Islands educators learned more about what the new Commonwealth Virtual Schools Act would mean for their school systems during a presentation by the VHS Collaborative at the Cape Cod Collaborative in Osterville last Friday.

The act signed into law on Jan. 2 allows the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to authorize and oversee public virtual schools that enroll students from more than one school district. The act is intended to make more virtual school options available to all public school students.