High school students to take college courses

The Maricopa Unified School District governing board approved a plan Wednesday to allow high school students to take classes for high school or college credit at Central Arizona College.

Board members also approved an operation plan developed in partnership with the Ak-Chin Indian Community. The plan outlines different ways the two can collaborate to help students succeed, including sharing attendance records and standardized test scores of students who live on the reservation.

Both items were approved without discussion.

The meeting was the first to have a full five-member board since Veronica Gay resigned in July. AnnaMarie Knorr was named her replacement last week, and took an oath of office Wednesday.

Also during the board meeting, Superintendent Steve Chestnut said the district is working on a tentative 2014-15 budget that allocates approximately $900,000 to different schools so they can help develop their academic focus.

“This is a huge sum of money to them to do some of the things that they want to do, whether that’s offering more advanced placement classes (or) training for staff,” he said.

The money comes from about $4 million the district expects to get for its six charter schools next year. The five elementary and one middle school were chartered this fall.

The district originally thought the money could only be used for chartered schools, but district staff took a closer look at Arizona Department of Education rules dealing with charter school money and realized it could be spent for all nine schools in the district.

“At first we did not realize that flexibility was there,” Chestnut said after the meeting. “We weren’t experts on it.”

The state Legislature currently is considering changes dealing with the “funding mechanisms for charters,” Chestnut said. But for the moment, they are planning the budget based on current regulations.

***ADVERTISEMENT***The funds can be used for curriculum materials, equipment, supplies, field trips and professional development, Chestnut said. It can’t be used to hire additional staff.

“The largest school gets the most amount of money,” he said. “That’s the high school, but that makes sense. They have the most kids and the most amount of responsibilities.”

The budget is tentative and a work in progress, Chestnut said.