The Natchez-Adams school board is ready to sink $250,000 into higher ACT scores.

The investment estimate would pay for teacher training, new teacher salaries and a battery of ACT preparation tests and class work for eighth- through 12th-graders. The ACT is a college entrance exam.

Superintendent Anthony Morris presented the board with a full plan and costs at Thursday’s meeting following requests from the board for the last two months.

The board asked Morris to incorporate the plan into current budget preparations, and hopefully implement the changes in the next school year.

“I know these are big extra dollars, but I think we need to scratch somewhere and find the money to do it,” board member Johnny Dale said.

Morris said he thought the costs were reasonable and doable. Before doing the math, he’d originally projected the ACT preparation costs to be somewhere near a half a million dollars, he said.

The plan includes offering an exam called Explore to all district eighth- or ninth-graders. The test provides early indicators of college readiness that can be used by teachers, Morris said.

The test costs $7.30 per student, but discounts are available for schools that administer the test to everyone.

The next step is for 10th-graders. Natchez High seniors would take the Plan, an exam that measures achievement and gives students a taste of what the ACT will be like.

This test costs $9 per student.

Finally, all 11th-graders would take the ACT, and the district would cover the cost. Currently students must pay for the test themselves.

The ACT is $29 per student.

But the bulk of the costs would come from the implementation of a more rigorous coursework at Natchez High. The board wants to see more advanced placement courses offered and wants to see facilitators working with students enrolled in online college courses.

Morris predicted hiring four teachers to fill this need and sending other teachers for professional development.

The plan is designed to grow with the students, meaning the district may not see full results for at least four years, Morris said.

And ultimately, successes on the college entrance exam depend on successes in elementary schools, he said.

“This is not something we just thought of overnight and decided to go from the top to bottom on,” Morris said. “It’s something I know we’ve been involved with from the bottom already.”

Morris pointed to several grants in place to improve reading in the lower grade levels for a few years now. The idea now is to meet in the middle, he said.

Curriculum Director Karen Tutor said it was important for the district to start building a more rigorous curriculum now.

“It all meshes together,” she said. “When we started looking at those reading scores we talked about how everything had to scaffold. We need to have these rigorous courses in place so that we can push them to meet these requirements.”

Board chairman Norris Edney said it was also important that all district employees buy into the change.

“The thing that bugs me now, is I’m not really sure that we’ve all thought about what it means to us personally,” he said. “A teacher who is socially passing a student is fraudulent. I thought that was gone. If it’s still there it needs to go.

“All of us are responsible for what leaves the Natchez school district.”

The board asked Morris to refine the plan more in the coming months.