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Board hears expansion plans for Polytech and pre-apprenticeship pathways tied to future-ready payments
Summary
District staff described plans to expand dual-credit and pre-apprenticeship pathways through the Polytech, working with the Department of Labor and University of Montana; the district hopes new pathways will generate CTE equivalency credits and possible STARS Act payments but final coding by DOL and OPI is pending.
Staff (speaker 3) and the superintendent laid out ongoing efforts to expand career and technical education at the Polytech and in the high school, including pre‑apprenticeship pathways the Department of Labor could approve for CTE equivalency credits. Staff noted examples under development — construction technology, welding, culinary, business and potential CAD/CAM — and said approvals may yield an equivalency of roughly 12 CTE credits based on comparable districts.
A meeting with OPI and Shannon Boswell was scheduled to determine how future‑ready payments from the STARS Act (House Bill 252) would be coded and reported. "They recommend getting the ground floor; let's get this done," staff said about the Department of Labor’s encouragement to build approved pre‑apprenticeship pathways.
Staff also described a pilot employability‑certificate partnership with the University of Montana that could bring additional A&B funding for participating students (a pilot cohort of 10 was discussed). The superintendent cautioned that some programs would not count for future-ready payments if students are already graduated, and that precise payment amounts (estimated by staff between $50,000 and $150,000 districtwide) depend on state-level coding decisions.
Trustees asked about capacity to expand dual credit when staff with required credentials leave; the superintendent said dual‑credit offerings depend on teacher qualifications (master’s plus required credits) and replacing staff is a limiting factor. Board members and staff agreed more outreach and administrative work is needed to scale successful pathways.
Next steps: finalize Department of Labor pathways, confirm OPI coding with Shannon Boswell, pilot the employability certificate program and begin marketing programs so future-ready payments can start to flow in 2028 if coding and enrollment align.
Ending: The board moved to routine business after acknowledging the complexity of aligning pre‑apprenticeship hours, DOL approvals and OPI reporting requirements.
