MERRILL - There's less than a month to go before students board the bus and hit the books again.

But thanks to a new virtual charter school out of Merrill, many students won't have to go further than their own computer.

Bridges Virtual Academy has over 300 students enrolled from Merrill and around the state.

Most of them are homeschoolers whose parents are looking for more resources.

"A lot of people have different preferences as far as curriculum that they want to choose, and when I heard of Bridges and the opportunity they afforded with that, really liked the fact that you could choose your own curriculum and they had a lot of flexibility involved with that," said Heather Runge, who is enrolling her three children in the academy.

Bridges administrator John Hagemeister has his own kids enrolled in the school.

He thought about 100 students would enroll, but got about three times that without any advertising.

"The families that enroll in our school are the families that have taken control of their child's education and they've directed their children to the point they are now," Hagemeister said. "I think our results, when we start comparing test scores and things like that, we're going to see that they're doing quite well."

The Merrill school district will get state aid from students who opt in to Bridges from other districts, but the charter school operates under its own independent school board.

Story By: Lex Gray