Deputy Superintendent Nancy Lamont told the El Paso County Colorado School District 49 board Oct. 23 that the district is proposing to add HSED (High School Equivalency Diploma, formerly GED) courses to its Edgenuity online course catalog for students enrolled in the district’s online expulsion and alternate-education programs.

Lamont said the courses would be delivered only through the Edgenuity online platform and would be available to a small number of students by board-approved addition to the district course catalog. She described two primary groups who might use the offering: students late in their junior or senior year who prefer to pursue a GED to enter the workforce, military or other postsecondary training, and students who are assigned to alternate education or online programs while facing adjudication on criminal charges and who may request a GED while proceedings are pending.

Lamont said students assigned to the online program would remain enrolled with the district (expelled or alternate-education status retained) while taking the Edgenuity pretest and the course sequence, but they would take official GED tests at external test centers (she cited a testing site in District 11 at Mitchell). Edgenuity pretests would be used to place students in modules aligned to the GED test topics (math reasoning, reading-for-meaning/ELA, social studies and science), she said. Lamont described the offering as limited — "very few" students historically request it — and aimed at reducing the number of students coded as dropouts by allowing some to be coded as completers.

Board members and other speakers raised clarification questions about test topics, reading-for-meaning versus comprehension, and logistics for testing sites and coding of completers vs. dropouts. Director Schmidt asked about the GED test topics and placement testing; Lamont explained the use of Edgenuity pretests to identify students’ needs. Director Olivia Wright and others praised the program as a pathway for students who left school and want to re-engage.

Outcome: The item advanced for further action; Lamont indicated she would move the item forward unless there were objections. The transcript records no formal roll-call motion and vote specifically on course adoption in the meeting minutes excerpt shown; the discussion was framed as board consideration and administrative direction to proceed with drafting the course catalog addition and procedures for offering the HSED/GED sequence.

Speakers: Deputy Superintendent Nancy Lamont (presenter), Director Schmidt (question), Director Olivia Wright (comment), Marie (board member/commenter).