HOLYROOD — Greg Clark, superintendent of the Holyrood-based Central Plains USD 112, has a good reason for republishing the district’s 2020-21 budget — the unexpected success of a virtual high school diploma program partnership with Graduation Alliance.

“That has gone over smashingly well,” Clark said.

The partnership between USD 112 and Graduation Alliance, which began in July, provides young adults, 20 and older, with a chance to get their high school diploma through virtual learning. It also provides USD 112 with a source of additional revenue.

“They have met and exceeded their expectations,” Clark said of Graduation Alliance. “As of today, we’re approaching 80 graduates, and by the end of the year we figure there will be about 1,500 credits earned.”

For each credit earned, the State of Kansas pays $709. Of that, USD 112 gets $70. Graduation Alliance receives about 90 percent because the company provides the curriculum and the teachers and recruit the students.

“There will be no extra burden on the local taxpayer,” Clark emphasized.

Clark said he can’t say enough good things about Graduation Alliance.

“It’s a great program,” he said. “We feel like we are impacting young adults’ lives all across the state of Kansas.”

Clark said when he and his board clerk, Diane Ney, were working on the 2020-21 budget, Graduation Alliance told them to plan for 1,200 credits.

“Diane and I were just too scared to do so, because we thought it would inflate our budget and look really crazy,” he said. “So I believe we chose 1,000 (credits).”

Clark told Graduation Alliance representatives that if they got more than that, the school district would republish its budget.

“They hit 800 credits by January, and are moving along towards that 1,500 credits earned,” he added.” So we’re going to have to republish the budget so we can get that money from the state. This is all state tax money.”

Clark said as of Friday, USD 112 had earned 1,400 credits with the expectation of 900 more, for a total of about 2,200.

A hearing on the budget is at 6 p.m. Monday, April 12, at Central Plains Junior-Senior School.