District moving ahead with graduate guarantee

A school district “guaranteed graduate program” is back on track after the school board approved a second reading of the proposal at its Monday night meeting.

The program was sidetracked for a time by a number of questions members of the Grand Coulee Dam School District board raised after the first reading of the proposal.

Superintendent Dennis Carlson brought in Dr. Gene Sharratt, former superintendent of the Educational Service District, to help answer questions board members had at a recent meeting.

Sharratt told the board that the program was well thought out and was the most complete proposal for the program he had seen.

Carlson had presented the idea to the board several months ago.

The “guaranteed graduate program” will be effective with this school year’s Lake Roosevelt High School graduates and be on an experimental basis for the next two years.

There are basically three elements to the program.

- For students enrolling in post-secondary institutions: If they are required to take non-credit, remedial classes in composition, mathematics, or both, the district will pay the per-credit cost of such classes upon successful completion of the work.

- For students wishing to enter military service: Should the student not achieve the minimum qualifying score on the ASVAB, the district will pay for tutoring services that aid the student in improving his/her score.

- For students directly entering an apprenticeship: Should the student’s employer identify a deficiency in math or communications that negatively impact the student’s program in the apprenticeship program, the district will meet with the employer, identify specific skills that need to be improved, and offer tutoring to the student to improve those skills.

Lake Roosevelt High School Principal Brad Wilson said Monday that the program hasn’t been pushed yet, awaiting the board’s action.

He said high school seniors will have the plan explained to them as soon as possible.

The plan calls for cooperative efforts by teachers, students and parents.

Attendance and grades are included in the requirements, the plan notes.

The procedural part of of the policy has yet to be set by the board.