MAPS and BVA sign new 5-year contract
TINA L. SCOTT
EDITOR
On Friday, May 20, 2022, Bridges Virtual Academy (BVA) in Merrill held their 2022 Graduation Ceremony in the Merrill High School (MHS) Auditorium.
In total, 51 students graduated from BVA this year from around the state, and 33 of those graduates participated in the Graduation Ceremony in person in Merrill with their family and friends. “This was our largest graduating class to date,” said Mary Ball, Student Services Manager at BVA.
Graduates from our immediate vicinity included the following students from Merrill: Benjamin Freyer, Abigail Hagemeister, Connor Haynes, Aubree Mootz, Caden Schulz, ToriLynn Strand, and Cole West-Hanson.
From other northwoods communities, Brianna Soderlund of Gleason, Lee Erath of Wausau, Ethan Jorgensen and Madison Landowski of Schofield, Hannah Mueller of Minocqua, Hunter Nitsch of Tomahawk, and Natalie Shrock and Callie Threlkeld of Rhinelander also graduated from BVA’s Class of 2022.
Other graduates of the BVA Class of 2022 included students from all around the state of Wisconsin: Joseph Aberg (Waupaca), Juliana Babich (Franksville), Annalise Benjamin (Sun Prairie), Brielle Bitting (Hales Corners), Kirstin Christensen (Union Grove), Noelle Clauser (Milwaukee), Gabriel Cox (Milwaukee), Luke DeYoung (Verona), Anastasia Ellis (Denmark), Jonathan Endris (Green Bay), Bryant Farrell (Greendale), Asher Frank (Waterloo), Cailey Gunderson (Wautoma), Naomi Jiles (Oconomowoc), Preston Johnson (Green Bay), Rylan Kelley (Monroe), Zachary Kolodzinski (North Prairie), Hannah Kozlowski (Mukwonago), Joseph Leroux (Richfield), Alec Morrison (Waukesha), Kiana Morter (McFarland), Faith Nosek (Oconomowoc), Mackenzie Nosek (Oconomowoc), Jonatan Pasillas-Velazquez (Milwaukee), Philip Saberin (Waukesha), Ty Potter (Oconto), Carter Roehl (Watertown), Maria Sawyer (Milwaukee), Mackenzie Schubert (Viroqua), Violet Schultz (Madison), Sarah Stege (Hartford), Hayley Strey (Madison), Madeleine Taylor (Appleton), Rachel Wallace (Kenosha), Eliana Worley (Waukesha), and Tabitha Zuelke (Green Bay).
The history of BVA
BVA is a grade K4 through grade 12 virtual charter school of Merrill Area Public Schools and celebrates its 10-year anniversary this year. According to a press release from BVA and MAPS, it was initially chartered in 2012 as an extension of a local school program called “Bridges to Learn” that operated during the 2010-2011 and 2011-2012 school years. The original goal of Bridges to Learn was to provide programming that would appeal to home-schooling parents in the Merrill area through a partnership with services provided through MAPS.
The idea of expanding the services to parents and students outside of the MAPS district led to the development of BVA, a virtual charter school, which expanded to include students throughout the entire state of Wisconsin. As a charter school, BVA is also able to offer flexible options and innovative opportunities to students. In its first year as BVA (2012-2013), enrollment grew to 499 students, and it continued to grow from there.
The development of BVA has been instrumental on a local and state level, as virtual learning was relatively new in Wisconsin. In addition to working with the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI) to ensure the school’s programming met state standards and statutory requirements, BVA has provided valuable direction and feedback to the DPI as they developed guidelines for how virtual schools in the state should operate and also provides assistance and support to other schools and districts in the areas of virtual learning.
Since the 2016-2017 school year, BVA has ranked as the highest scoring virtual charter school in the state, according to the press release.
During the COVID pandemic, BVA’s enrollment spiked at 1,040 students. Enrollment has now returned to pre-pandemic levels and remains strong at 802 students, the release said.
When BVA started, there were fewer than 10 virtual charter schools in the state. Today there are more than 60.
In Jan. 2022, BVA and MAPS signed a new five-year contract to keep BVA operating through the 2027-2028 school year. MAPS provides the human resources and special services support, accounting, and other centralized services for BVA. In turn, BVA provides MAPS with financial support for these services by virtue of the revenue generated with the addition of their student enrollment, currently approximately 800 students, to the district.