By Barrett Newkirk, Herald Bulletin Staff Writer
November 09, 2008 11:56 pm
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ALEXANDRIA — Like school superintendents across Indiana, Jim Willey is hoping to control an unintended outcome of property tax reform that potentially could handicap classrooms.
In January, the cost to families wanting to send students away from their home school district will drop dramatically. That’s because under tax laws passed earlier this year by the Indiana General Assembly the state will control school districts’ general funds, and districts will no longer have the ability to charge thousands of dollars in transfer tuition.
In order to avoid sudden shifts in student populations that could create either overcrowded or deserted schools, Willey, the top administrator at Alexandria Community Schools, and other superintendents are asking their boards to enact new policies that will stipulate who can transfer and when.
“We really don’t know what’s going to happen as a result of the change in the law,” Willey said. “Schools really have three options: to accept none, accept all or accept with condition.”
Of the five public school districts in Madison County, only South Madison Community Schools does not accept students from outside the district’s boundaries. That policy has existed since 1979 and keeps the near-capacity district’s growth under control, Superintendent Thomas Warmke said.
He didn’t expect South Madison to alter its policy soon, saying the district is taking a “wait-and-see attitude.”
Other districts already have a policy regarding transfer students in place, and some are updating them to set new transfer application deadlines and ensure transfer students have good academic and discipline records.
“The landscape is changing to the effect where you almost have open enrollment unless you set criteria for which kids you’ll accept,” Elwood Community Schools Superintendent Thomas Austin said.
And while school administrators are hoping their new policies keep enrollment numbers level, they are still asking lawmakers to revisit the issue next year.
Sen. Tim Lanane, D-Anderson, said he is waiting on clarification on the law’s potential impact on families as well as school districts.
If the impact is as severe as some think it will be, Lanane said, then the law should be re-examined in the next legislative session.
“It’s something that we need to know going into the next session,” he said. “If we’re basically opening up the border for kids to go to any school district, there is a major problem for our school system and possibly other urban school districts.”
The Elwood school board will likely consider a policy Nov. 13 similar to those being worked up in other local districts. Austin said his district has “less than a handful of transfer students now” paying fees as high as $270 a month. Transfer fees at Madison County school districts varied slightly by grade level and school district.
The Indiana Department of Education said in a statement that transfers may not end up being totally free because some local sources of general fund revenue may still exist. The department could not provide precise amounts because each corporation is unique, the statement read.
Frankton-Lapel Community Schools has by far the most transfer students on its rolls of any local district: 149 this year, according to Superintendent Bobby Fields.
The district already requires transfer students have a 2.0 grade point average and no recent expulsions. The transfer also cannot create a high student-teacher ratio or cause a student to enroll after the September student count date, which sets state funding levels for the year.
Fields said he doesn’t expect the district to change its policy.
“We’re still going to get these funds off the cash tuition students,” he said. “Except now they won’t be paying. It will all be paid by the state.”
Other districts will be reviewing policies in the coming days.
The board of Alexandria Community Schools is set to consider a revised transfer student policy at a meeting tonight. Anderson Community Schools is slated to do the same at a board meeting Tuesday.
In Anderson schools, the proposed policy will require transfers be made before the count date, Superintendent Mikella Lowe said.
Like other districts, ACS’s policy is based on sample wording from the Indiana School Boards Association. Along with the deadline, it would require the student be in good academic standing and have a clean discipline record, Lowe said.
It would also give the district discretion in determining if the school can comfortably accommodate the student, she said, and continue to prohibit transfers for athletic purposes.
Willey said he does not expect Alexandria schools to see a major influx of new students, but a stronger policy will help the district keep staffing in line with needs.
Along with a policy already in place that requires a transfer student be in good academic standing, have a strong attendance record and no major disciplinary blemishes, Willey wants to add a May 1 deadline to transfer requests.
And while Willey acknowledged that his district will likely not see a large shift, it’s better to be cautious.
“We don’t know what to anticipate at this point,” he said. “We just want to position ourselves in a way so we can accommodate our current students and deliver services in the way we should to all of them.”
If you go...
• Alexandria Community Schools board of trustees
7 p.m. Monday, Alexandria-Monroe High School auditorium, 1 Burden Court
• Anderson Community Schools board of trustees
6 p.m. Tuesday, Wigwam Complex Auditorium, 1220 Lincoln St., Anderson
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