While he said Monday that all the details have not been worked out, it looks like he will be teaching dual enrollment classes for Colorado Northwestern Community College, utilizing classroom space somewhere in Meeker.
Currently, Dorsett is at Meeker High School, but it is not certain yet where he will actually be teaching.
“I received a phone call from (Meeker School District) Superintendent Mark Meyer on Tuesday afternoon (Aug. 19), the day before the first day of classes, and was told that he had negotiated a contract with Iris Franklin (the CNCC campus director in Meeker) to teach for CNCC as a member of the adjunct (or associate) faculty,” Dorsett said. “I will be facilitating the math and science classes for the college’s dual enrollment program and will be supervised by Franklin under the flag of CNCC.
“The contract has not been completed yet, but I have been assured it is a done deal,” he said.
Dorsett said that if all goes well, he will be teaching five dual enrollment classes, including the same classes he taught at MHS: statistics (alternated with calculus at MHS), civics, college algebra, anatomy and college math preparation.
The Dual Enrollment program allows a high school student to take certain classes while in high school free of charge through a college, and the high school credits are good toward high school graduation while those same credits are used toward a college degree.
There have been many cases around the nation where the program is so successful — usually for juniors and seniors in high school — that the high school student has graduated from high school after receiving their community college degree.
Dorsett will be teaching in a local classroom situation, he said.
“If we had gone online with it, we would have had to remove the kids from the program,” he said, adding that Meeker School District doesn’t recognize an online program.
“I will be teaching campus-based classes, and all five are accredited by Meeker High School and CNCC,” he said. “As long as the students maintain a ‘C’ average in the class, they are OK; if they fall below the ‘C’ they have to pay the college tuition for the credits that they don’t carry a ‘C’ or better grade on.”
“Really, the only difference between this year and last is that I will be under the supervision of CNCC,” he said. “I am grateful to all of those who played a role in my getting back to teaching MHS students,”
Dorsett not only has his teaching doctorate, but he is also a medical doctor, having been a physician in family medicine, which was the reason he moved to Meeker in 1981.
He began teaching at Meeker High School in 2001, and he has been teaching math and science since that time.
