New London Local Schools

USDA enhances healthcare for students with funding for telemedicine initiatives to connects students with remote medical services. Brad explains, “We have relationships with a couple local hospitals. Our nurse is associated with UH Samaritan Medical Center, so that's really going to be the springboard to the telemedicine piece. Whether it's a local urgent care herein town or the Regional Medical Center in Ashland, OH, we can connect our students with medical professionals.” Like many rural communities, New London has a poverty rate well above the state average, making access to healthcare is not only a geographic challenge but an economic one as well. 

Brad continues, “One of our partners is the Huron County Mental Health and Addiction Services Board because they also see the value in telemedicine. If we would have said telemedicine for mental health two years ago, people would have looked at us a little funny and there was a number of state and federal statutes that made telemedicine difficult. For mental health, a lot of those barriers have been removed and people are looking a little more progressively as to how telemedicine can fit into behavioral health and mental health, so we're optimistic that we're going to have a big reach. Our plans are still in the conceptual phase, but all parties agree that the potential is there.” Access to affordable mental health and substance abuse care is a national challenge. The power of telemedicine technology is bridging the gap and saving lives in rural areas and beyond.

Part of the requirements for the RUS DLT grant award are strategic partnerships in coordination with distance learning and telemedicine. New London Schools already had
established relationships with Lorain County Community College and Norwalk Catholic Schools as partners for STEM education.

Brad explains, “With Lorain County Community College, we had an existing relationship through our College Credit Plus program, and so we've really built out our offerings with them. The distance learning technology can only strengthen the course offerings and the support to students.”

Distance learning technologies has the potential to allow students at Saint Paul's, a small Parochial school, to select AP calculus classes at New London Schools, where multiple units of AP calculus are offered, or attend higher level physics classes, accessing educational opportunities not easily offered in smaller schools.

The third partner is Northwestern Local Schools (NWLS) in Wayne County, one of the few districts in the state that have a STEM designation for their preschool, elementary school, and their high school. Brad tells, “They are all STEM designated, and that's a goal of ours, to receive STEM designation. This is an opportunity for us to learn from them and for our students and their students to collaborate. We are part of an established network of rural schools in our region that work together virtually. We are in year four of partnering with NWLS and a few other districts in our region as part of the Rural STEM collaborative with High Schools That Work and the Army Educational Outreach Program.” Leveraging partnerships with other educational institutions, distance learning technologies exponentially grow dynamic educational opportunities for students throughout the region, broadening the grant’s impact far beyond New London Schools.