New law requires 3 local schools to notify parents on ‘school of
choice’ status
When it comes to inter-district transfers, Hollister School
District Superintendent Gary McIntire said he has been seeing more
students transferring into the district than out.
”
I honestly don’t see a flood of students out and I’ve had many,
many students in,
”
he said, adding that he has been directly monitoring the
requests himself.
”
It’s been a bit of a challenge for us, dealing with large
classes and trying to be very mindful of our budget.
”
New law requires 3 local schools to notify parents on ‘school of choice’ status
When it comes to inter-district transfers, Hollister School District Superintendent Gary McIntire said he has been seeing more students transferring into the district than out.
“I honestly don’t see a flood of students out and I’ve had many, many students in,” he said, adding that he has been directly monitoring the requests himself. “It’s been a bit of a challenge for us, dealing with large classes and trying to be very mindful of our budget.”
He did say the district would accept students and adjust staffing if necessary.
“The extra students will kind of pay for themselves,” he said.
He noted that there have been no changes to the inter-district transfer policy, and that any changes would have to be approved before the Hollister School Board. Most changes are suggested to bring the district into compliance with state or federal laws.
One of the changes the district will have to contend with this year is the Open Enrollment Act, SBX5 4, which requires that students in low-achieving schools be allowed to attend any other school in California. The schools listed include the 1,000 with the lowest scores on the academic performance index. R.O. Hardin is one of the schools listed.
The bill requires the district to notify parents and guardians that R.O. Hardin is a “school of choice” so they can choose to send their children to another school if they want.
“(The school) is doing very well so it is a bit perplexing,” McIntire said, of R.O. Hardin’s inclusion on the list. The school’s API score was 735 when it was added to the list of 1,000 lowest-scoring schools.
The other schools in the county to make the list include San Juan Elementary School and Tres Pinos Elementary School.
“With the bill, we will be needing to update to include these new provisions,” McIntire said.
“Our board would love to see the school district recover – be able to retain all of our students in our school district,” McIntire said. “We believe in our district programs, but we have to follow the law in the policies.”
The reasons parents have requested transfers out of the district, he said, are the reasons he’s seen in other districts. Sometimes it is from a family that recently moved to Hollister and the family wants to finish school in Gilroy, or it may be a family that works out of town and requests to have the child attend school where the family works.
“I would support them when we have a legitimate concern – if it is going to cause a disruption (in education,)” he said.
McIntire explained that a parent must apply for a transfer with both districts – the one the child will be leaving and the one the family wishes the child to attend. If either of the districts denies the request, parents can appeal to the San Benito County Office of Education.
He did say that parents can request a child move to another district if the district in which they reside doesn’t offer an educational program.
Two rural school principals said they often get requests for transfers that site a desire for small class sizes and a K-8 environment.
“Districts outside can maintain class-size reduction programs and we can’t,” McIntire said.
Luciano Medeiros, the principal of Tres Pinos School, said he had seen fewer requests for students to transfer into his school than in past years. The waiting list for the school year is only a few students deep. In past years, he has had a waiting list of up to 38 students.
The school, however, maintains a ratio of about 60 percent of students that reside in the district and 40 percent that reside out of the district.
“Usually the small-school environments, like the K-8, and sometimes kids get intimidated by the junior highs,” Medeiros said, of the draw of his school. “Like the small class sizes, where we know the kids.”
Medeiros said his class sizes are about 25 maximum, though some of the classes are 27 to 28 this year.
“We figure we can run the system with about 135 kids and pay for everything,” he said. “Our budget is hitting a deficit so major decisions will have to be made, but we are lucky to have a large floating reserve.”
Spring Grove, however, in the North County Joint Union School District, has a long waiting list this year.
“We are seeing more requests to come in to our district this year and due to our enrollment, they are going on a waiting list,” said Jennifer Bernosky, the principal and superintendent of Spring Grove School.
The primary classes are at 25 students and the upper grades are at 32.
