The USD 383 Board of education, superintendent Eric Reid and Manhattan High administrators reached a temporary agreement with Manhattan Area Technical College’s board of directors last week, December 6th.
“They did agree to the terms,” Principal Michael Dorst said. “And now we are just finalizing a few things on it before we sign it; we will probably sign it in the next board meeting later this month.”
The agreement establishes similar reimbursement rates for General Education courses as before the dispute. However, for Excel in CTE (Career and Technical Education) classes, which were defined by Senate Bill 155 in 2012 to provide state-funded college tuition in approved content areas, there will be a 50-50 split of the tuition paid by each student, less than the original 75% reimbursement MHS was receiving.
“We were receiving 75% for all Excel in CTE concurrent courses, and MATC retained 75% for auto,” Dorst said. “They retained 75% [for auto] because they provide the instructor … MATC proposed [the negotiation] and what everybody agreed upon for this year only was to do 50-50 (for Excel in CTE and Auto classes).”
The agreement will last through the 2023-24 school year. The MATC board of directors and USD 383 administrators will look to renegotiate terms at the conclusion of the school year.
In other news, the Kansas Department of Education recently approved Manhattan High’s plans for concurrent classes with Kansas State University. Similar to MATC classes, these would be taught at Manhattan High School on-site, allowing more accessible college credit opportunities.
“We have been working on this for a couple of months,” Dorst said. “They have a great team at K-State that we’ve been working with, and the board did approve.”
Starting this spring, MHS plans on offering both College Algebra and Elementary Statistics through K-State. At the start of next semester, counselors and students will work to create their K-State student accounts, known as eID’s, as well as complete concurrent enrollment requirements. Dorst hopes that this partnership with K-State will continue to grow and offer more Gen-Ed opportunities.
“There’s a strong possibility that we’ll be looking to expand our Gen Ed classes with Kansas State University,” Dorst said. “Our motivation is to make sure we’re taking care of the responsibility that we have with our students and making sure that we have as many concurrent classes that we can manage.”
