CARLSBAD — Aiming to benefit high school students, the Carlsbad Unified School District (CUSD) Board of Trustees voted to allow MiraCosta College to use classrooms at its new, partially empty high school for evening classes come spring 2014.
“It is a win-win for both the district and the community college,” said CUSD Assistant Superintendent of Instructional Services Robert Nye.
At its Aug. 14 meeting, CUSD’s Board approved a memorandum of understanding that would allow MiraCosta to hold evening classes at Sage Creek High School starting in spring 2014.
Though the partnership has yet to be finalized, the intention is to allow MiraCosta to use up to six classrooms at a next-to-nothing cost provided that CUSD students are able to take the classes for free or a reduced tuition, according to Nye.
The classes offered would be based on those that are in the highest demand by high school students, though the classes will be open to any and all Mira Costa students.
MiraCosta would be responsible for paying for any additional security and utility costs from the classes, which would be held between 4 and 9 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays.
A final agreement will be arranged after MiraCosta has discussed the arrangement at an upcoming board meeting.
Mira Costa would utilize space at CUSD’s newly built high school, Sage Creek High School.
Sage Creek will open for the 2013-14 school year with a 295-student freshman class, despite the fact that its campus can hold a maximum of 1,500 students, said Nye.
The CUSD Board originally intended to open the school with a freshman and sophomore class its first year, however not enough sophomores signed up to transfer from the crowded Carlsbad High School.
This coming school year, 34 classrooms and two multipurpose rooms will remain empty due to lack of students.
However, the cost of running the new school at below capacity was already accounted for in the money the district set aside to build and open the school, said Nye.
“Part of opening a school, you anticipate not being at full capacity for the first few years…so that’s built into the cost of opening that up,” he said.
4 comments
Carlsbad residents are HAPPY that we have a new high school. It will get full!! CHS is overcrowded and will get worse once all the new tract homes are finished! BTW – The residents VOTED to build and pay for Sage Creek! So the board members listened to the MAJORITY of residents. Some unhappy people just cannot accept a loss. And before you complain about the cost of Sage Creek not being full – you should read the article – it was built into the price of the bond measure. How about giving kudos to the school for finding extra revenue and offering free college classes in those empty classrooms? Same old whining.
C’mon now. Any extra revenue from a few MiraCosta classes is microscopic compared to all of the taxpayer money flushed down the toilet by operating a brand-new high school that is three-quarters empty.
The only way they’ll ever fill Sage Creek High School is by drawing boundary lines and forcing kids to go to school there even if they’d rather attend Carlsbad High.
Carlsbad school board members should be RECALLED for wasting millions of taxpayer dollars to open a high school that is nearly empty because students don’t want to attend it.
They should be. It’s ridiculous and nonsense. But no one ever listened to people with brains. Sage Naumann should be elected to the board. He would put an end to this nonsense (or at least try to).
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