The USD 490 Board of Education took action Monday night to make Extend High School a program within El Dorado High School, rather than a charter school, next year.
This was necessary because the federal charter school funding the district had received for Extend ends this year.
"We believe the charter school has been an excellent investment for our district," said Superintendent Sue Givens.
"By making it a program of EHS, it will remain at the same location, have the same goals and operate the same."
The benefit is they will not have separate administrative costs currently associated with it and it will share some instructors with EHS. The current Extend principal, Tammy Fellers, will be moving to a position at the middle school.
"That will also benefit us as far as in the day-to-day management,"Givens said.
Another plus is they will be able to replicate some of the things they are doing at Extend at the high school.
In order to officially make this change, the board has to take action to close Extend, then reopen it as the new program at EHS.
"We're not closing Extend," Givens reinforced to the board members. "We're changing what it is called."
The first step in this process was for the board to approve a public hearing, which they did 7-0. The public hearing will be at 7 p.m. June 14 in the USD 490 District Office.
Following the public hearing, the board will take action on the change.
