Special Meeting on Interdistrict Transfers November 1
Inter-district transfers for various student classifications will be considered. Will priority be given to resident’s grandchildren?
The Piedmont School Board plans to hold a special meeting on Tuesday, November 1, from 7 – to 9 pm in the City Hall Council Chambers. The Board will review the State requirements of the Open Enrollment Act and also consider amending its current policy in order to allow grandchildren of Piedmont residents to enroll in Piedmont schools. According to the School District notice, “other requests have surfaced to expand the criteria for inter-district attendance. Conversely, requests to oppose expanding inter-district attendance have been received.”
The School Board will review the impact of the Romero Bill – Open Enrollment Act. Although the Open Enrollment Act went into effect April 14, 2010, actual open enrollment under the act had to wait until regulations to enforce the Act were developed by the California Department of Education. The regulations, which define the schedules and requirements became effective January 1, 2011.
The Open Enrollment Act allows students from under-achieving schools to apply for transfer to higher-achieving schools. A list of the lowest performing 1,000 schools in the State is identified each year by the California Department of Education, based on the most recent Academic Performance index (API). For the 2011-12 year, the list of under-achieving schools includes one school in Alameda, two in Berkeley, four in Hayward and 14 in Oakland.
The parent or guardian of every child enrolled in an Open Enrollment qualified school is informed of the option to transfer. Once a child has been accepted and enrolled in a school in another school district, he or she does not need to reapply for the following year in that school. However, once the transfer student has completed elementary or middle school, it is unclear whether the student must be allowed to continue on in the transfer district through 12th grade. or whether continuation is at the discretion of the transfer district. The law states:
“A district of enrollment may allow a pupil who has transferred to and is currently enrolled in a school in the district pursuant to the Open Enrollment Act to matriculate to a middle or high school in the district without having to reapply, regardless of whether the school into which the pupil would normally matriculate in the pupil’s district of residence is on the list of 1,000 Open Enrollment schools.” Education Code 4702 (c).
The Piedmont School District has long had a policy of allowing children of School District employees and City of Piedmont employees attend Piedmont schools as inter-district transfer students. The School Board will discuss multiple issues including EC 4702 (c) and the extent to which the District must continue providing educational services to the child regardless of district space or fiscal considerations under the new regulations. Priority between grandchildren, employee children and other applicants, in case of limited entry space, may be discussed.
It is estimated that of the approximate 2600 students attending Piedmont schools, about 150 do not reside in Piedmont, making the school population currently composed of roughly 6% non-resident students.
Criteria for acceptance into the District must be established by the School Board in accordance with the requirements of the Open Enrollment Act. Additionally, a policy for accepting or rejecting students in conjunction with other criteria, such as grandchildren of residents, will be discussed.
“The Board will review current Board Policy and Administrative Regulation 5117, ‘Inter-district Attendance’ and other material provided by staff. The request is in the beginning stages of discussion.” NO ACTION will be taken at the meeting, as the issue will require further discussions and will be noticed via School Board Agendas.
Back up material will become available 72 hours prior to the meeting. Click on “Board of Education”; click on “Agendas and Minutes”
The school district can surely come up with more than an estimate of out of district students. I count 143 families living outside Piedmont in the latest roster. Many of those families have 2 or more students. What is the difference in what the state pays for these students and what Piedmont spends per student? What is the breakdown of the out of district students…..City? School district? Millennium? Do the parents participate in The Giving Campaign? I think we should continue to offer this perk for our school and city employees if there is space.