Enrollment for the spring is up at Flint Hills Technical College, according to reports discussed Monday at the regular meeting of the school’s board of trustees.
“We have set another enrollment record,” said Lisa Kirmer, dean of student services. “This is our highest spring enrollment in the history of Flint Hills Technical College.”
As of Monday, the head count for the spring semester was 457, and the Full Time Equivalency was 364.5. The number for FTE is what determines the school’s funding.
This is a marked increase from the last two years. In spring 2008, the school’s head count was 393, and the FTE was 328.5. In 2007, the head count was 392, and the FTE was 303.5.
“Our spring semester is always smaller than our fall semester,” Kirmer said. “In the almost eight years I’ve been here, we’ve had fall semesters that weren’t this big.”
“One of the things we would like to do is even it out so that our spring semester is as strong as the fall,” said President Dean Hollenbeck.
According to Kirmer, the numbers could keep going up.
“We still have a CNA class that starts in February that we’re still enrolling for. EMT will go up because we are enrolling students from Manhattan. And there are a couple of other classes — the starting your own business class has not started yet and then the manufacturing skills certificate will be offered this spring, so we’ll be enrolling quite a few late-starting, for credit courses.”
The board also discussed a concurrent enrollment program that is being set up with Emporia High School. According to Rachael LeClear, general education/community education coordinator, the agreement is set to start in the fall of 2010. The tech college will offer English Comp I, introduction to psychology, college algebra and introduction to sociology.
“The classes are in effect the same as what we offer on campus here,” LeClear said. “So this will be essentially the same in terms of the textbook we use, course outcomes, final exam will be identical, pre- and post-tests will be the same and the grading scale will be the same.”
The only difference between the technical college’s classes and the ones offered for EHS students will be the location of the classes, Leclear said.
“The courses will be taught by their instructors during the regular school day, which will make it a lot easier for the high school students to get those credits.”
The classes will be offered to EHS seniors, juniors and qualified sophomores.
LeClear said to enroll in the classes, students will have to apply for admission to the technical college, and for College Algebra and Comp I they will have to meet minimum score requirements on the ACT test. The students will be charged the regular tuition rate, but the full fee rate won’t be charged because the students will not be using the school’s facilities.
The agreement is not yet finalized; it will go to the school board for approval, after which more details will need to be worked out.