Mandan High School Sophomores Need a Little Credit… [Derived Headline]

By SARA KINCAID

Mandan High School sophomores need a little credit, an additional credit.

The Mandan School Board raised graduation requirements to 22 credits for the class of 2009 in anticipation of legislation requiring the change.

Sophomores already registered for their junior years, which has the high school counselors a little concerned about the timing, Principal Mark Andresen said. If a student takes six credits freshmen, sophomore and junior year, and five credits senior year – what it takes to be a full-time student – then the student should graduate with 23 credits, Andresen said.

There is a small group of students – less than 10 percent – however, who are not on track to graduate with enough credits. For these students, they need to take summer school, or if it is an attendance problem there are correspondence courses, Andresen said.

The board could have started the increased requirement with the class of 2010, but a bill making its way through the legislature could increase graduation requirements to 24 by 2012. Administrators and some school board members did not like the idea of increasing graduation requirements by either one credit three years in a row or by two credits two years after increasing it by one.

The change in graduation requirements being considered by the legislature is part of the P-16 education task force, which looked at the transition through school from early childhood education through college. Increasing the high school graduation requirements will align the requirements with North Dakota University System’s admissions requirements.

Earlier this school year, the Mandan School Board raised the math requirement to three for the class of 2009.

The board also approved a bid with North Star Audio for the sound system in the new Mandan Middle School. The bid was twice as much as the low bidder Audio Systems. The board decided to go with North Star because of previous experience and the desire to go with a local business.

The school district is meeting with the city and land owners next week about annexation mediation.

The district wants two roads to be built to provide access to the school. The roads would be paid by a special assessment district, but the district could consider different methods of paying for the road. This includes spreading the burden of the roads across the school district taxpayers or shouldering a portion of the assessment. Mandan High adds credit

(c) 2007 Bismarck Tribune. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.