It's 9 p.m. and your high schooler needs help with his calculus homework. You are stumped. The homework is due tomorrow.



Now, help is just a mouse click away, thanks to a partnership among the San Diego Unified School District, the city public library system and the local business community. Each contributed more than $70,000 to fund free access for students to www.tutor.com for one year.



Tutor.com offers immediate, one-on-one help from certified tutors in avariety of subjects, in both English and Spanish, for students in fourth through 12th grade. The library signed a one-year, $217,000 contract with tutor.com to offer its flagship "Live Homework Help." The library had offered the program from 2004 through early last year, but discontinued it after money ran out.



It reactivated Live Homework Help on Jan. 4, but has not advertised the service because glitches were being worked out.



"This is such an important community service," said Dennis Gooler, assistant to the library director.



Matthew Spathas, a partner in SENTRE Partners, a San Diego-based real estate investment and services firm, was critical in restarting the service. The Point Loma father of four has been advancing the role of technology in education.