East Side board hears plan to scale dual‑enrollment with Evergreen Valley and San Jose City under new CCAP agreement

East Side Union High School District trustees on June 1 heard a detailed rollout of a new College and Career Access Pathways (CCAP) agreement that district staff said will greatly expand opportunities for students to earn transferable college credit while still in high school.

The district and its community‑college partners described the agreement — effective July 1 — as a formalization and scaling of dual‑enrollment courses taught on high‑school campuses during the regular school day. Kyle Kleener, East Side’s director of instruction, said the change removes transportation and cost barriers that often keep students from taking college classes: “Under CCAP, students are in college now — they have an EVC email and an ID card — and that builds the belief that they belong there,” he said.

The agreement modifies minimum instructor qualifications in a way the presenters said will allow many more East Side teachers to offer college‑level classes on campus. Under state rules a community college professor must hold a master’s degree in a subject area; under the new agreement those East Side teachers who meet the minimum qualifications can teach up to four dual‑enrollment sections each semester. The community college pays stipends for sections, provides curricular and administrative oversight, and East Side teachers remain district employees, Kleener said.

Dr. Jeremy Brown, vice chancellor for educational services and planning, presented historical outcome data gathered from National Student Clearinghouse tracking. Of roughly 3,900 students who participated in the district’s earlier dual‑enrollment efforts (2016–2026), Brown reported that 21% later enrolled in community college and 27% enrolled directly at four‑year universities; San Jose State University was the top four‑year destination. He also said course success rates in the dual‑enrollment classes have been “high — in the 80% to 90% range,” which Brown characterized as evidence the courses help students persist.

District staff said practical examples of course sequences — such as English C1000 plus ethnic studies and a gateway math — could knock out multiple CSU general‑education requirements for students who complete a four‑course sequence by graduation. Kleener said the district is aiming to give students the option of completing up to four high‑value college courses by the end of senior year — roughly equivalent to one semester of freshman college.

Scale and early enrollment figures were a focus. Kleener told the board there are more than 2,200 student requests logged for approximately 30 college courses that the district plans to offer and roughly 32 East Side teachers have begun the onboarding process to serve as dual‑enrollment instructors. “These numbers will shift as schedules finalize,” he cautioned, but he framed the early demand as strong.

Implementation steps include verification of teacher qualifications in an online portal, a May 26 orientation for teachers with community college partners, training for site administrators and counselors, and fall enrollment support from Evergreen Valley College (EVC). Dean Angel Fuentes (EVC) said the college is also expanding concurrent and middle‑school programs so students arrive at high school with prior exposure to college coursework and suggested some students may graduate high school with a year of college credits.

Trustees asked how the district will make students aware of opportunities earlier in their high‑school careers. Student leaders said some juniors and seniors were unaware of the new CCAP offerings during scheduling; Kleener and counselors said outreach is largely conducted at the school site by counselors, site administrators and teachers and that marketing will expand next year.

Funding and staffing questions surfaced. Kleener said stipends come from the community college; the district has set aside internal funding to support start‑up work and outreach. Board members asked about equity in access between sites; staff said the largest limiting factor has been state minimum qualifications (how many teachers at each site hold qualifying master’s degrees) and that staffing and recruiting strategies must account for that.

What’s next: staff said the agreement is already in motion (orientation done, teacher applications underway) and that EVC and site teams will enroll students this fall. Trustee and superintendent comments touted the partnership as an important step to make college accessible for first‑generation and multilingual students.

Provenance: Topic first introduced at SEG 552; presentation and Q&A continued through SEG 1311.

Speakers (attributions used in this article): Kyle Kleener (Director of Instruction), Dr. Jeremy Brown (Vice Chancellor of Educational Services and Planning), Dean Angel Fuentes (EVC dean), Mildred Janos Richards (Counseling coordinator), student leaders Adeline Lei and Ariana Corvu.

Topics and scoring: - dual_enrollment — justification: main subject of the presentation and board discussion; relevance: 1.00, depth: 0.85, opinionatedness: 0.10, controversy: 0.30, civic_salience: 0.90, impactfulness: 0.85, geo_relevance: 1.00

Authorities cited: AB 288 (2015) and relevant Education Code direction for CCAP agreements (referenced by presenters).