Weighted courses will be added at Emporia High School, the school board decided Wednesday night. And the Emporia Recreation Commission has a new board member.
The Emporia USD 253 Board of Education approved adding college algebra and college biology to the 2010-11 list of honors and advanced placement courses at EHS. Students enrolled in the courses receive the weighted grades factor.
The courses are concurrent courses through Flint Hills Technical College.
George Abel, assistant superintendent of teaching and learning, said students receive both high school and college credit for taking the courses. When students receive college credit it shows the course is beyond the expectations of a high school course and would meet the honors/AP course criteria, he said.
The board also voted unanimously to appoint Susan Rathke to the recreation commission board. Board members said they had worked with Rathke in the past and that she had done a good job with the organizations she’s been involved in.
The school board considered three applicants for the position, which was created when Jennifer Bennett resigned her position in August. The two other applicants were Jamie Sauder and Gary Loucks.
In other action, school board members:
• Approved a request from Abel to discontinue EHS membership affiliation with NCA, the North Central Association. Abel said the NCA accreditation expectations and the QPA, or Quality Performance Accreditation, expectations, which the district also uses, are the same. In 2007, the school board approved a decision to end the NCA membership for kindergarten through eighth grade. EHS retained NCA membership because it was in the middle of the accreditation cycle, which ended in 2009. Abel said leadership at EHS believes the additional work required by the NCA accreditation process takes away from their focus on the No Child Left Behind requirements.
• Agreed to exercise the flexibility clause in the master contract for professional learning time at Emporia Middle School. Representatives from the Emporia National Educators Association said in a memo that 77 percent of EMS certified staff voted to exchange three hours of the April 25 workday for three hours of the May 25 professional learning time.