The area administrators who presented at the 2019 National Forum to Advance Rural Education — from left are Brooke Holbrook, Northeast Wisconsin Technical College kindergarten to 12th grade relations director; Nate Burklund, Niagara Schools district administrator; and Ben Niehaus, Florence County Schools district administrator.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The school districts of Florence County and Niagara, along with Northeast Wisconsin Technical College, gave a presentation at the 2019 National Forum to Advance Rural Education on Oct. 24-26 in Louisville, Ky.

The opportunity to talk about the Woodland Consortium on a national stage was sponsored by the Wisconsin Rural Schools Alliance, or WiRSA.

District administrators Ben Niehaus and Nate Burklund along with Brooke Holbrook, NWTC kindergarten to 12th grade relations director, presented on behalf of their schools, in addition to the participation and opportunities provided for the students of Beecher-Dunbar-Pembine and Goodman-Armstrong Creek schools.

The Woodland Consortium provides post-secondary credit opportunities for the four regional school districts plus adults seeking further education at the former Hillcrest Elementary School in Aurora, Wis.

NWTC assumed ownership of the facility in 2017 after leasing part of the building beginning in 2009. Student and adult programming have expanded rapidly since then, with students having the opportunity to earn post-secondary credits and employability certificates in general studies, electro-mechanical engineering, certified nursing assistant, IT, EMT, customer health care service and entrepreneurship, along with NWTC welding courses and AWS certification offered for students at Niagara High School.

Students from the four schools collectively earned 358 credits during the 2018-2019 school year, saving them $53,342 in tuition, in addition to putting them on a path to completing degree or certificate requirements sooner to support the growing demands in the workforce.