Fifteen miles of tiny transparent fibers soon will connect pupils in Sanilac and St. Clair counties to educational opportunities not possible a decade ago.

School officials said installation of fiber optics will create a higher level of learning through programs such as distance learning classes, college courses and virtual field trips via the Internet.

The $315,000 project — paid for mostly by a grant acquired by the Greater Thumb Telecommunications Consortium project -- is well under way at the Sanilac County Intermediate School District.

It is expected to be finished by June 30.

"The fiber optics will allow (pupils) in Sanilac County to use resources in other counties," said Carol Dorman, the ISD’s technology coordinator.

Cable Constructors of Iron Mountain began installing the aerial fibers at the Sanilac Career Center on Aitken Road last month. They will proceed south on M-19 through Peck and finish at Yale High School in St. Clair County.

Ms. Dorman said the Sanilac ISD will be tied to the St. Clair County ISD through 12 strands of fiber optic wires already installed at Yale High School.

Yale schools are connected to the St. Clair County ISD, which is on the same fiber system as Genesee, Lapeer and Shiawassee counties.

Once installed at the Sanilac County ISD, school officials hope to connect all of the county’s schools to the St. Clair County ISD, which, in turn, will enable Sanilac to be connected to all the schools with fiber optics in the Thumb area and their resources.

"By installing fiber optics in Sanilac County, we’ll be reaching out to make a collaborative effort with those three counties," Ms. Dorman said.

The new fibers also will save Sanilac County a significant amount of money, Ms. Dorman said. The ISD currently runs Internet services on a phone line, paying $721 each month, or $8,652 a year. That monthly bill, she said, will be wiped out completely once the fibers are installed.

Chuck Madden, technical consultant and service coordinator for the Lapeer County ISD, helped map out the construction route and engineer the project. He said the new fibers will make Internet connections much faster and crisper.

"Distance learning programs will have more ‘real time’ because they’ll be faster and the images from classroom to classroom will be much clearer," he said. "The fibers will open up the door to more services throughout the county."

Lapeer received the fiber-optic upgrade, which cost the county nearly $900,000 to install, in 1996. Shiawassee County installed fiber optics in time for the 1994-1995 school year. Genesee and St. Clair counties installed fiber optics for the 1997-1998 school year.

In 1999, the four counties were connected as one compatible fiber-optic system.

Scott Bryan of the St. Clair County ISD said the county’s 194-mile fiber-optic system cost nearly $2 million to install. Mr. Bryan helped Mr. Madden in the engineering and layout of the project.

Sanilac, Huron and Tuscola counties are the only regions on the Thumb area still connected to the Internet through phone lines, Mr. Madden said.