News | Calendar | Menus | Schedules | Teacher Pages | Program of Studies

PART II - PROCEDURES AND PROGRAMS

Minimum Course Enrollment/
Grade Level Classification

Students in grades 9 to 12 are required to carry a minimum of 5 credits or its equivalent per semester to be eligible for participation in extracurricular activities and to be eligible for the Honor Roll.

Students are assigned grade levels based on total accumulated credits during the previous years as follows:

Sophomores - 10th Grade..........................At least 5 1/2 credits earned

Juniors - 11th Grade....................................At least 11 1/2 credits earned

Seniors - 12th Grade...................................At least 17 credits earned

Any student who falls below enrollment in minimum units of credit may be subject to their schedule being condensed or changed by the administration. All requests to enroll in fewer than the minimum units of study must be made through the Guidance Office and approved by the Principal. Students carrying less than a full course of study and not in compliance with a plan established by the administration may face dismissal from school. Only students who have fulfilled all requirements for receiving a diploma will be allowed to participate in the graduation ceremony.

Adding and Dropping Courses

Student’s schedules should be finalized before leaving for the summer vacation. When students return to school in the fall, schedule changes will only be made for the most valid reason and only with the express approval of the high school principal.

Requests for schedule changes must be initiated through the guidance office where an add/drop form may be picked up. Students are required to have signatures from Department Chairs and those teachers involved in adding and dropping a course. Written permission from a parent or guardian will be required and a parent conference may be scheduled to discuss the request for a course change. The completed request must be returned by the student to the Guidance Office within 48 hours of its issuance.

Courses dropped after school begins: Semester long courses-- students who withdraw prior to the end of the first quarter will receive a W. Students who withdraw after the beginning of the second quarter will receive a WP or WF depending on their current grade. Yearlong courses--students who withdraw prior to the end of the first semester will receive a W. Students who withdraw after the beginning of the second semester will receive a WP or WF depending on their current grade. Advdanced Placement (AP) course enrollmen: Students enrolled in Advanced Placement (AP) Biology and (AP) Calculus may withdraw from “drop” the course during the first semester without penalty or credit. Students enrolled in (AP) Psychology, (AP) US History and (AP) English will be eligible to earn 1/2 credit -- Intro. AP -- if they complete the first semester with a passing grade or they may withdraw from “drop” the course during the first semester without penalty or credit. The course will be removed from the students schedule/report card. During the second semester students enrolled in AP courses may withdraw with a “WP” if passing or a WF if failing.

Awarding Credit

To be credited with a grade, a student must complete course requirements in a satisfactory manner. The minimum passing grade is 65. A student who does not do so will receive a failing grade and no credit for the course.

Any courses or programs outside of the school that a student wishes to be given credit in must have prior approval by the Department Chair, the Director of Counseling Services, and the Principal. If a student takes a course as an independent study for credit, his/her grade will be included in the determination of eligibility for extracurricular activities and the Honor Roll. One correspondence course may be taken within the senior year if a student is unable to fulfill credits through a program offered at Lake Region. The final determination for awarding credit will be made by the Principal. Excessive absences, academic dishonesty, or disruptive behavior, may result in loss of credit (See Absence Policy, and Academic Dishonesty and Plagiarism in the Student Handbook.).

Home Schooling: The student must be enrolled in a home study program registered with the Vermont Department of Education. A copy of the Vermont State Department of Education enrollment letter for the student’s home study program must be presented to the Principal. The school is not obligated to accept a student’s home study records in the event that the parent/guardian decides to enroll his/her child in a public or independent school in the future. Credit towards a Lake Region diploma will be determined after a review of the home study program and/or completed course work. The student’s grade placement will be at the school’s discretion. Students enrolled in a home study program registered with the Vermont Department of Education may enroll in up to 2 credits or its equivalent per semester. Students who desire to take more than 2 credits must enroll as a full time Lake Region student.

Graduation Requirements: 23 1/4 credits are required to receive a Lake Region diploma.

Progress Reports

Monitoring a student’s progress is the shared responsibility of parents, teachers and students. Progress reports are mailed out to parents at mid-quarter. However, a possibility exists that a student might be passing at mid-quarter and yet still fail the quarter. Therefore, a conference is strongly advised between student, parent and teacher if at any time a parent or student feels that the student’s grade is in jeopardy. Progress reports are never a precondition for a failing grade.

Parents are strongly encouraged to consult the Program of Studies or teacher about the specifics of individual course requirements, to attend parent/teacher conferences as part of this shared responsibility, and to review student’s corrected work.

Report Cards

Report cards are issued at the end of each quarter, or nine week session. Letter grades are used to designate a student's progress on report cards and/or transcripts.

Honor Roll

A student must maintain the following grades: Highest Honors -- Obtained by earning 90/A- or above in each class; High Honors -- obtained by earning 84/B or above in each class; Honors -- obtained by earning 80/B- or better in each class per quarter. Only full time students (carrying a minimum of 5 credits or its equivalent) are eligible for the Honor Roll.

Testing/Assessment Programs

Many new and valuable tests/assessments will be available to you throughout your four years in high school. The purpose of these tests/assessments is to help your teacher, counselor, Department Chair, and Principal to better understand your personal needs, and to assist in your post high school preparation. Following is a list of some of the tests/assessments:

Career Interest Assessment ............................................. Grade 9, 10, 11

National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT) .......... Grades 10, 11

College Board's Scholastic Aptitude Tests (SAT I & II) ... Grades 11, 12

Advance Placement (AP)................................................ Grades 11, 12

ASVAB ......................................................................... Grades 11, 12

NECAP Reading/Writing/Mathematics/Science.................Grade 11

Gates-MacGinite Reading Test................................ Grades 9, 10, 11, 12

Student Support Team (SST)

The Student Support Team (SST) is a group of educators (e.g. school counselors, drug and alcohol counselor, home-school coordinator, administrator, planning room coordinator, academic achievement center coordinator, teachers, special educators, and school nurse) who serve as an initial referral base through which students are identified, screened and referred to the aforementioned services within the school and then for outside services when deemed appropriate.

The SST supports collaboration among educators to address concerns for individual students having academic, behavioral, and emotional difficulties. Increased communication helps to keep students from “falling through the cracks” and provides plans and strategies necessary to help students succeed. In addition, the school is obligated to comply with ACT 197 and to ensure accountability for students who are eligible for Section 504 services.

Academic Support

Academic Support is open to all students who may need assistance in a structured study hall and is designed to help students improve their study skills while completing their course work requirements. Academic Support is a component of the Title 1 school wide program and serves to improve students’ academic skills.

Section 504 Civil Rights

The goal of Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 is to eliminate discrimination on the basis of disabilities in programs or activities that receive federal money. Disabilities include, but are not limited to, both long-term and short-term medical conditions, learning disabilities and emotional illnesses. If an impairment “substantially limits one or more major life activities” the individual is entitled to accommodations so that he/she may access that activity. For example, if a student has a learning disability but is not eligible for special education, he/she may still be eligible for accommodations that would allow him/her to access learning in the classroom.

Special Education Program

The Special Education Program works with students that are eligible for special education services. Students are eligible for special education services if they have a learning disability, a learning impairment, visual impairment, deafness or being hard of hearing, speech or language impairment, an orthopedic impairment, chronic or acute health problems, and/or an emotional-behavioral disability.

Students receiving special education services require specialized individualized programs (IEP) and/or accommodations based on their specific needs. The regular education program provides the environment to accommodate each student’s individual differences and educational needs. Special education provides a continuum of services where the placement of choice is the regular classroom. Students receive services in a variety of ways. They may receive services on a one-to-one basis or within small groups in the Resource Room. Para-educators also assist students in the mainstream setting. Special education students are generally scheduled for a study skills time. During this time students work on completing IEP goals and receive help with homework assignments.

Beginning at age 14, special education students have a written transition plan as part of their IEP. This transition plan helps students move through the continuum of services and prepares the individual for integration into the community that may include employment or post-secondary education.

Northeast Kingdom Parent Child Center
Another Chance Program

The Northeast Kingdom Parent Child Center is open to those students age 16 or older who are parents or expecting. The Parent Child Center serves as an Alternative Program for eligible students. Students may enroll in this external program at the discretion of the Director of Counseling Services and the Principal. Students must complete competencies based on guided study related to Lake Region’s curriculum. A plan of study must be approved by the Principal prior to beginning the program.

Extra-Curricular Activities

The following is a list of Extra-Curricular Activities that you may participate in during your four years at Lake Region. All students are encouraged to participate in at least one activity each year. A student must meet the academic eligibility requirements in order to participate. Students will be nominated/recommended for enrichment opportunities and it is then their responsibility to apply.

Technology Grade Cluster Expectations

The following is a description of the technology skills grade cluster expectations adopted by the State of Vermont. Technology skills expectations are integrated into all courses at Lake Region. Individual teachers can provide integration information specific to the course(s) they teach when requested.

Basic Operation and Concerns

Use of Operating system and standard features of applications

• Creating, opening, saving, and printing a document.
• Logging in and out of a network.
• Using digital tools to capture images and other information and import them into a computer (e.g., scanner, digital camera, temperature, light, sound).
• Identifying and saving documents in multiple formats (e.g., doc, jpg.)

Organization and Navigation

• Creating, naming, and renaming folders.
• Cutting, copying, and pasting within a document, across documents, and across applications.
• Creating a duplicate/backup document in another location.

Social, Ethical, and Human Issues

Intellectual Property

• Documenting sources of information obtained through electronic resources using acceptable formats.
• Applying copyright and fair use guidelines in student work.
• Explaining the accuracy and relevancy of the content.

Productivity Tools

Word Processing

• Adding non-textual elements (e.g., lines, arrows, shapes, etc.).
• Using spell check and thesaurus and grammar check.
• Create a table.
• Adding non-textual elements (e.g., arrows, lines, shapes, etc.).

Spread sheets

• Creating a spread sheet from a blank page, including formulas and function, formatting cells.
• Explaining the relationship between data and visual representation (graph)
• Creating a graphical representation appropriate to the numerical data.

Database

• Generating a report.
• Creating and manipulating a database, by entering, sorting, searching/finding/querying and using multiple criteria.

Paint/Draw

• Creating original illustrations using paint and draw applications.
• Modifying a digital image using flip, rotate, resize, crop, select, copy and paste.
• Selecting and saving images in the appropriate format (e.g., jpg, tif, gif).

Visual Organizer

• Choosing and creating effective visual organizer to illustrate a variety of relationships, ideas and topics (e.g. cause and effect, Venn diagram, organizational charts, flow chart).

Calculators

• Using a graphing calculator and grade appropriate application/functions (e.g., graphing, statistics, tables, equations, matrix).

Communication

Multimedia

• Creating a linear and nonlinear presentation including title slide, graphics, text, voice, sound related to topic, scanned or digital photo, animation, bibliography and table of contents, video clip.

Research, Problem Solving and Decision

Digital Resources

• Locating information that is accurate, relevant and appropriate, using a variety of electronic resources including digital encyclopedias, specialized CDs and the Internet.
• Locating information that is accurate, relevant, appropriate and identifying possible bias (opinion vs. fact) using a variety of electronic resources.
• Locating information from specialized on-line databases (e.g. post-secondary resources, virtual libraries, periodical databases, and others).

Searching & Search Engines

• Selecting an appropriate tool for locating information on the Internet.
• Implementing a search strategy using full Boolean logic with parentheses, (e.g., behavior and cats or felines).

Problem Solving and Decision Making

• Selecting the appropriate tools and technology resources to address a variety of tasks and problems.
• Applying technology skills to learning unfamiliar technologies (e.g., digital cameras, scanner, probes)
• Creating and using simulations or models, e.g. spread sheet to design “what if” scenarios.
• Justifying decisions made, (e.g., representing data, formatting, setting up formula, selecting criteria for search).
  
  

Copyright © 2009, Lake Region Union High School. All rights reserved.