Welcome to Mauston’s Virtual Program. The School District of Mauston is pleased to offer you this virtual option for learning in the 2020-21 school year. We want to make sure that students have the best virtual school experience possible, so the District is partnering with the Wisconsin Virtual School (WVS) for virtual learning.
Mauston’s Virtual Program focuses on the needs of individual students who may need or desire an alternative approach to their education. The district offers both a full-time virtual learning option for students in grades 4K-12 and opportunities for students in grades 9-12 to customize their learning experience with individual virtual courses.
Attending school in a virtual environment takes dedication on the part of both students and families that support them in their learning. Students enrolling in virtual programming must make a commitment to complete the coursework in the virtual learning platform in order to demonstrate evidence of learning.
Families play a big part in supporting their children in the virtual learning environment - especially at the elementary level. Parents or guardians will need to commit time daily to supporting student learning on the virtual platform.
Details are available in the SDM Virtual Program Handbook.
Families with students attending Mauston's Virtual Program must be registered with the School District of Mauston. For information about completing online registration for Mauston Schools, please go to the SDM Online Registration Page.
Families will be asked do the following:
Read SDM Virtual Program Handbook to determine if a virtual education is the right fit for your child.
Complete the SDM Virtual Program Inquiry Form
Once you have expressed interest in Mauston's Virtual Program we will contact you to verify your interest. We will ask you to complete the Virtual Program Technology Survey and arrange for a time for you to sign forms and pick up the needed technology.
SDM Virtual Education Agreement indicating that you will abide by the information outlined in the SDM Virtual Program Handbook
Processing applications for Mauston's Virtual Program may take a couple of days to complete. When the students are added to the platform they will receive an email to their school gmail account with the username and password for the learning platform.
Your Mauston Virtual Program Teacher 4K-8 or Coach 9-12 will contact you to discuss orientation.
It is very important that students know and use their school email account. Their gmail login is used to log into their chromebook and regular communication will go to their school gmail account. The login for students is firstname.lastname@students.maustonschools.org. If the student doesn't know the password, please contact the helpdesk at helpdesk@maustonschools.org to have it reset.
Students attending SDM virtually are eligible for both breakfast and lunch. Each Monday we send a survey to families to order meals for the following week. Meal pick-up is on Mondays in front of the Mauston High School from 10:30 - 11:30. For questions about food service, please contact Erin Wermeling at 608-847-5451 ext 6686.
Google’s Tech Toolkit for Families and Guardians
Google Meet
When joining a Google Meet, make sure you allow Meet access to your microphone and camera
If your camera or mic aren’t working in a Meet session, check the settings to make sure the correct devices are selected
If you get kicked out of a Google Meet and you can’t get back in, try rebooting the Chromebook
If the teacher has left a Google Meet, the student won’t be able to get back in
Make sure your Chromebook is connected to the internet.
Student Account
If the student can’t log into the Chromebook due to a bad password, reach out to Mauston’s Help Desk at helpdesk@maustonschools.org or 608-847-5451, Ext. 4477.
Google Chrome/Chromebook
If the student is having trouble moving around in Google Chrome, try clearing their Google cache:
On your computer, open Chrome.
At the top right, click More (the three stacked dots)
Click More tools. Clear browsing data.
At the top, choose a time range. To delete everything, select All time.
Next to "Cookies and other site data" and "Cached images and files," check the boxes.
Click Clear data.
If the Chromebook is acting badly, check for Chrome updates
How to update Chromebooks.
Click the bottom right corner of the Chrome OS desktop.
Select the Settings icon.
Click About Chrome.
Click Check for updates.
To apply the update, click the arrow icon and select Restart to Update.
Hotspot
The range of a hotspot is NOT large, so be sure you are sitting close enough to get a strong signal connection. Having the hot spot by a window will give the best signal.
Call the Mauston Help Desk helpdesk@maustonschools.org or 608 -847-5457
Follow up with your student’s virtual coach or virtual teacher.