Alternative high school diploma options for Mat-Su Central discussed at latest MSBSD meeting

During the Superintendent Update at the March 19 Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District (MSBSD) school board meeting, Superintendent Dr. Randy Trani presented more information on an alternative diploma program for homeschool students who go to Mat-Su Central School, in which students could graduate with fewer credits.

This diploma option would be more rigorous than other districts’ core requirements and the state graduation requirements, but be similar in total credits by requiring less elective credits.

Students would also have the option to fulfill the requirements for the MSBSD HS diploma.

“Is this one of those hurdles that we might need to get across to attract back the thousands of students who go to other correspondence schools?” Dr. Trani asked.

Currently, the MSBSD requires 25.5 credits for students to earn a high school diploma, well above the statewide 21 credit requirement. Raven and CyberLynx require 22 credits, and IDEA requires 21 credits to graduate.

The idea was first brought up by Dr. Trani earlier this year and is a “major change” from how the MSBSD currently operates he said, pointing to several requirements that do not align with homeschool models.

“There’s increased flexibility while maintaining rigorous coursework. I think the board would be in favor of that.”

Some of the challenges with the current requirement model include fulfilling the 4C’s, AP Seminar, and additional AP, International Baccalaureate, and CTE requirements for graduation, which are difficult to align with homeschool instruction.

“It’s hard for a homeschool family to actually teach AP Seminar because most parents couldn’t go get the training in it,” Dr. Trani said of that requirement for homeschool students.

He said the alternative correspondence diploma would maintain the flexibility most in homeschool programs seek, while maintaining access to “rigorous coursework and high-quality CTE opportunities,” and ensure all postsecondary pathways remain open to all students.

He also pointed to a recent survey conducted the Academic Advisory Council (AAC) to families of students at Mat-Su Central School that said 58% of those surveyed strongly disagreed with current MSBSD graduation requirements, while 78% said they support changing to the state minimum requirements.

“There’s this strong dissatisfaction, and they (the parents) would support a minimum. So it’s one of these things where you ask questions differently, you get answers that might be dramatically different answers, even from the same people.”

He then displayed a graph that showed nearly 62% of the graduates of Mat-Su Central School last year exceeded the 25.5 credit requirement. “This is opposite of what we saw in the other graph.”

He said there could be an almost unlimited number of options for possible types of alternative correspondence, graduation pathways or diplomas to consider.

Members discussed whether graduation requirements are causing students to leave the district, what flexibility families are looking for, and whether these proposed changes would cause a mass internal exodus of current district students towards Mat-Su Central.

Dr. Trani is also looking to attract the estimated 3000 students who do not go to school in the MSBSD, but instead choose statewide correspondence schools that area available here in the Mat-Su Borough, saying that those families are choosing to re-enroll or not this spring and there is some urgency to this idea.

MSBSD school board member Ted Swanson asked a hypothetical question that if the board lowers the graduation requirement to 21 credits and 50% of the brick and mortar students were to move to correspondence programs, how would that affect funding. While Dr. Trani said the district does lose money if students choose an out-of-district correspondence school, he also said the MSBSD could lose money if families opt for a MSBSD homeschool program.

“If they were to go to our own correspondence school? It’s not as lucrative for us, for them to be in our correspondence school as it is for them to be in our brick and mortar programs.” He added that if the district could attract back those who are in other correspondence programs, the district would gain money.

“You say we’re losing students to other correspondence programs and I say, why?” MSBSD school board member Tom Bergey asked. “Are we developing a solution in search of a problem, or is there really a problem that we are addressing?” He said that he could support something that is broken, but challenged that the superintendent didn’t demonstrate that something was broken, and said he would need to see statistics before buying into the idea.

“I understand the desire to bring students back from other programs, but I still would like to see the data.”

“A common frustration I hear is that the graduation credit is too high…I know that it does turn people away immediately from coming to the program,” said school board member Kendall Kruse.

Kruse also said that she hears from families that another reason families opt for a homeschool program is because their child is having difficulty with their grade level, and perhaps falling behind, and those programs help students either maintain or catch up. She expressed concerned for those students who need the additional support and time to recover their learning. “I really believe that of the families I know that choose the other programs…it’s due to the flexibility.”

Dr. Trani hinted this alternative diploma may come before the board for a first reading at the next board meeting scheduled for April 2nd, 2025, and for a second reading and vote on April 16th, 2025 which is scheduled to be held at Glacier View School.