New programs raise sticky questions for schools

Advances in a program designed to help high school students get a leg up on college are raising questions for the local school district.

Some juniors and seniors at Lake Roosevelt High School are enrolled in Wenatchee Valley College’s new online version of Running Start, which lets students earn college credit before graduating from high school, for free.

Previously, students had to travel to Omak to attend WVC to take advantage of the program, but this year the college is offering it online. Three LR students participated last year. That number has jumped to nine this fall.

That’s nine students who aren’t enrolled at the local school, but who are expecting to use it.

That raises policy questions for school board members regarding liability, fairness, and just plain room.

Superintendent Dennis Carlson ticked off some of the concerns Tuesday in an interview: “What’s our liability of having un-enrolled students on our campus? … What access should they have to computers? What access should they have to libraries?”

“The other complication,” Carlson added, “is with our projected enrollment last spring going forward, we might have had space for the kids to work in independently, but we don’t have that now” with higher than expected enrollment in the new school complex.

Monday night, he sought direction from the school board, which had a lengthy discussion.

Housing Running Start students keeps kids in the school population who are often its leaders. And the model of an ambitious student pursuing a college education is a good one to have in the school, Carlson noted.

On the other hand, if that accommodation is offered to them, is it also offered to home-schooled kids and partially enrolled fifth-year seniors? Bringing them into the building also requires supervision, which could cost $30,000 to $40,000 a year.

And, the question Carlson said wasn’t really addressed in the school board’s discussion Monday: Who pays for it?

Wenatchee Valley College will bill the school district $5,500 for each full-time student. Less for those enrolled for fewer classes. The district gets to discount that by seven percent, but sends the rest of the state school support dollars through to WVC, which then takes in more than its average tuition per student — $3,443 in 2013, according to its website.

For now, Carlson said, the district will take in the WVC online students but implement a new sign-in, sign-out procedure to at least help with the supervision and liability issues. But he’ll be researching the questions raised by the online college in the near future.