Middle college, a new program for high school students, was the main topic discussed at the board of trustees meeting, held on July 21.

Dawn Lindsay, vice president of instructional services, gave a special presentation on the exploration of middle colleges. Lindsay, who is spearheading the exploration of middle college, says that this program is an alternative for high school students to attain their educational goals.

Among the benefits to Glendale Unified School District is this program would improve attendance rates, grade point averages and would mean a decrease in high school dropouts in the community.

“It’s designed for students with high academic ability, but low motivated students (for their current curriculum). These are students who have demonstrated success (in high school). They have the intellectual ability, the academic ability, but high school is just not meeting their needs,” said Lindsay.

The program benefits the college as students may choose this college as a result of the program and the college, although not receiving money from the students, would receive money from the state for providing an academic opportunity.

Lindsay said some of the colleges that have a middle college program start as soon as the ninth grade. Students in middle college would be treated as adults and will be exposed to adult topics as the curriculum would not be altered.

Glendale Community College has a program in place for concurrently enrolled high school students, but Glendale Unified is now looking into a middle college program.

Future discussions will be taking place between the college and Glendale Unified to discuss issues such as parental involvement and other variables and to see if middle college is a viable option. Audre Levy, president of the college, said that in the middle college program, half of the classes are taught on the high school campus and the other half are taught at the college.

Levy said that at Harbor College, students graduated with both a high school diploma and an AA degree, because the students were committed and found ways to take classes during the during the summer and winter intersession.

“I think the biggest challenge for us is two-fold. One is that we don’t want to bring on any program that’s going to cost us money .and the second one is space. We don’t have the space,” she said.

Levy then talked about possibly using the building on college view or the Civic Center across the street from the college as options for classroom space for the students.

Levy said that the board needed to know who is going to bear the cost of the middle college, not only what the cost would be.

Victor King, president of the board, said he will have a future meeting on this issue with the Glendale Unified board.

Other topics for discussion included the Garfield expansion and accreditation of the college and descriptive language used for accreditation.

Larry Serot, vice president of administrative services, talked about a girls’ camp called Rosie Goes to Wall Street, hosted and sponsored by the college, the Commission on the Status of Women for the city of Glendale and the Soroptomist International of Glendale.

This camp, in its second year, has about 45 students attending its free of charge. The students attending are high school age. Featured are sessions on personal finances, public presentation and self-defense among other things.

On another subject, Serot said that the college is saving money by using solar panels located on the parking structure. He said because the college is using green power, the college pays the normal rate for power instead of a premium rate.

In other news, Serot spoke on the subject of construction for the student services lab building. He said construction for the lab building, due to the state fiscal crisis and other factors, will be pushed back until the next bond measure and will be delayed until 2010.

The next board of trustees meeting will be held August 25 in Kreider Hall at 5 p.m., which will include a public hearing on the final budget.