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6 <br /> contemporary issues,developing a sense of community,and the transition from <br /> adolescence to adulthood(life skills, apprenticeships, enrollment in college level courses, <br /> learning off-campus, and flexible "learning"hours). <br /> One way that capital costs could be held down is by providing more flexible <br /> hours for students and by offering more courses off-campus. We might consider a model <br /> in which some students attended only in the morning while others attended in the <br /> afternoon or evening. Some students might take one or more courses over the Internet. <br /> Some students might be dual enrolled in a community college. Some students might take <br /> some of their courses at a high school in a neighboring district that has areas of <br /> specialization not offered at our schools. Such flexibility might allow us to educate far <br /> more students in a high school than its official capacity. In some respects,this <br /> scheduling flexibility produces the same economies of a multi-track year-round school in <br /> that all students are never in attendance at the same time. <br /> A cost that must be considered in this model is transportation. If we are to ensure <br /> equity, offering choices requires that additional resources be dedicated to transporting <br /> students to school. We would need to dedicate some capital funds,probably from the <br /> recurring capital budget,to the purchase of additional school buses. The magnitude of <br /> this effort could be reduced by taking advantage of the municipal transportation system. <br /> We also might qualify for some federal or private funds that are available to support <br /> magnet schools and smaller school communities. <br /> Our purpose at this time is to introduce the concept of constructing smaller high <br /> schools as an option to the outstanding comprehensive high schools that we already have <br /> in the district. If the Board of Education is interested in pursuing this idea,the <br /> administration will structure a process for soliciting feedback from our constituents and <br /> engaging in an intensive planning process. <br /> We look forward to the opportunity to present the entire Capital Investment Plan <br /> to the Board of Education on February 7''.and to process the major issues with our <br /> community as well as with the County Commissioners. <br />