HUTCHINSON, Kan. — The USD 308 School Board Monday took a look at the elementary boundaries map a community committee has recommended for the board’s approval.
In August, the board voted to move forward with a process to get community input to redraw district elementary school boundaries. The boundary revisions were necessitated by a separate community committee’s recommendation that a track of classes be removed from McCandless Elementary School to save the district $350,000.
Removing a track from McCandless reduced the school’s capacity by about 180 students, requiring the district to make changes in elementary school boundaries.
The board is expected to formally consider the boundary changes at its Dec. 14 meeting.
Also during Monday’s meeting, the board heard a report from Ronn Roehm, Hutchinson High School principal, about plans to provide a second alternative diploma program.
In addition to the regular high school diploma at HHS, non-traditional students also can qualify for a GED Plus diploma, which requires them passing a full credit of senior English, a full credit of U.S. history and a half credit of American government in addition to passing the GED examine.
The new Career Ready Plus diploma retains the coursework requirement of the GED Plus but instead of a GED, the student has to obtain a WorkKeys Career Readiness Certificate. The student, then, will have a HHS diploma as well as a National Career Ready Certificate.
To earn the silver level NCRC, which is the industry standard, successful HHS applicants would pass three WorkKeys cognitive assessments – Applied Mathematics, Reading for Information and Locating Information.
For employers, the Career Ready Plus diploma would provide objective measures of an applicant’s workplace skills.