English, biology will be offered in pilot program.

Suttons Bay students will be able to take college level courses next year for credit without having to jump in the car and leave school.

The Northwestern Michigan College Board of Trustees last week approved a pilot program for the school in which entry-level courses would be offered at Suttons Bay High School. English 111 and 112, as well as Biology 106, will be offered to students at Suttons Bay.

“It’s for students who would like to get some of the required course work out of the way,” Superintendent Mike Murray said. “It’s courses that would be required wherever they end up going.”

The program was just one area in which members of the Suttons Bay school board were updated in a workshop meeting last week.

Board members heard about an effort within the district to extend opportunities for students demonstrating “gifted and talented” traits. Murray said the district has identified some of these students and are offering opportunities to go beyond what their classmates are doing in the traditional setting.

“One example of this would be taking students interested in history and having them participate in the Veteran’s History Project,” Murray said, of the program in which students interview subjects about their experience during World War II.

In another instance, there’s a gifted middle school student with an interest in science who is working as an assistant to the high school chemistry teacher.
Both programs will likely be discussed at the monthly meeting of the Suttons Bay Board of Education on May 12.