Fayette County high school students could soon be taking courses over the

Internet through a collaboration proposed with Clayton County schools.

At a meeting last week, school board members were given details of the plan

put together by Pam Riddle, assistant superintendent for curriculum.

Clayton County purchased the software for nine high school courses from

Class.com, developed by the University of Nebraska, a couple of years ago,

Riddle explained.

At a cost of $12,000 to $15,000 per course, it's not cheap, Riddle

said. The neighboring district also bought the hardware and established a

server network necessary to maintain the courses.

"We don't have the technical support people right now to maintain

our own classes even if we could afford it," Riddle said.

But Clayton County is willing to share the resources with Fayette students,

who would access the classes through Clayton's technical department.

Students must pay extra to take the classes, estimated about $225 each.

But that's a discount from the usual per-student cost of $295 per class

that it would cost without the sharing agreement with Clayton.

Additionally, Riddle said Fayette classroom teachers would be trained as "virtual

teachers of record" for the online course offerings, which would reduce

the costs per course even more. The savings would be given