The Board of Education heard an annual summary of credit‑recovery, gateway and summer programs designed to help students earn missed credits and graduate on time.

Diane McDonald presented program summaries and performance measures, telling the board the district budgets approximately 20 hours for students to complete a core class in winter or spring credit recovery. “We budget time for about 20 hours for students to complete a core class for credit,” McDonald said.

Program highlights presented to the board:
- Winter and spring credit recovery: Priority is English then math. McDonald said the program earned about 199 semester credits in winter and 153 in spring in the cited year.
- Gateway to Graduation (versions 1 and 2): Extended‑day programs targeted to seniors and credit‑deficient students; the district reported results showing the programs moved students toward graduation and credited many seniors with needed coursework.
- Excel: A new program targeted to multilingual learners with interruptions in education; it was grant‑funded and used a third‑party course platform described in the presentation as subject.com with bilingual staff doing case management and follow up.
- Golden Grads / summer recovery: Teachers worked during the summer to graduate students who still lacked a small number of credits. McDonald reported that this summer 36 of 46 students earned diplomas before July and were counted with their graduating class.

Why it matters: administrators said these programs form a continuum of supports that contributed to multi‑year gains in graduation rates. McDonald told the board that, for students who completed winter or spring recovery, 90 percent passed subsequent math classes and many recovered credits led to successful course outcomes.

Questions from the board addressed program scale and metrics. When asked for participant counts, McDonald estimated about 311 students participated in credit recovery across the referenced year; she supplied semester‑credit counts when asked. Board members asked about grade replacement policy for recovered classes; presenters said recovery typically converts an F to a D for GPA calculation rather than recording a pass that leaves GPA unchanged.

Ending: The board received the annual report; administrators said the district will continue to run and evaluate the programs and bring recommendations for expansion (including additional online summer offerings) back to the board.