Students offered college classes tuition free

Mark Bell

Contributing Writer

Thanks to a new agreement with Southeast Kentucky Community and Technical College, students at Harlan County High School this coming year will be able to enroll in some dual credit courses tuition free.

“I’ve been so used to bad news lately I didn’t know what to think at first when I got this,” Brent Roark, assistant superintendent for curriculum at Harlan County Schools, told the board of education during their regular meeting Thursday.

While an administrative fee remains in place for many courses that will now be tuition-free, most courses available to students will not have a tuition charge applied.

Some courses will continue to be at 50 percent of the college’s regular tuition rate when the course is taught by a college faculty member rather than one of the district’s certified teachers.

According to the new agreement, a 50 percent tuition waiver will be offered to students when they are enrolled in dual credit career and technical education courses and/or general education courses that are taught at the high school or Area Technology Center (ATC, formerly the vocational school), when the courses are taught by a Southeast KCTCS faculty member, and when all instructional costs are covered by the college.

A 100 percent tuition waiver is offered to dual credit students when those courses are taught at the high school or ATC, when the courses are taught by a secondary school teacher, and when all instructional costs are covered by the school district.

Courses under the 100 percent tuition waiver will include a $50 administrative fee by KCTCS per semester to cover the costs involved to create and maintain student records.

“Now our parents only have to pay $50 as opposed to 50 percent,” Roark said. “Classes taught by college faculty at the 50 percent tuition rate are not subject to the $50 fee.”

Roark noted the district offered 15 dual credit classes in the previous year, and 10 of them would now qualify for the 100 percent tuition waiver.

“The dual credit program has been very successful for us,” Roark told the board. “All of us need to seek out and thank Dr. Ayers and his tremendous staff at the college for all they are doing to help the kids and parents of Harlan County.”

In a related matter, interim superintendent Mike Howard noted the school district had recently submitted the required documents to execute the transfer of the old Cumberland High School property to Southeast KCTCS.

The college should be able to close the transaction on the property soon, he said.