Hollister to limit outgoing students to 1 percent of ADA
Hollister School District Superintendent Gary McIntyre said
officials have yet to determine details on how they will implement
a new policy that highly restricts the number of departing
interdistrict transfers.
Hollister’s board of trustees two weeks ago approved the new
rules that are expected to affect hundreds of Hollister families
who have been permitted in the past to transfer to districts such
as North County, Southside or Tres Pinos.
Hollister to limit outgoing students to 1 percent of ADA
Hollister School District Superintendent Gary McIntyre said officials have yet to determine details on how they will implement a new policy that highly restricts the number of departing interdistrict transfers.
Hollister’s board of trustees two weeks ago approved the new rules that are expected to affect hundreds of Hollister families who have been permitted in the past to transfer to districts such as North County, Southside or Tres Pinos.
They will limit the total number of interdistrict transfers to 1 percent of the average daily attendance, or 75 students, whichever is greater. The superintendent has the discretion to weigh a set of criteria and decide which applicants meet the eligibility requirements. That decision has many local families upset because their kids might have no choice but to change schools.
Erin Livingston is one of those parents. She has an eighth-grader at Spring Grove School who will be moving on next year, but also a fifth-grader who has gone through the school to this point.
“Emotionally, we’re concerned,” she said. “Academically, we’re concerned. Spring Grove is a California Distinguished School. Our kids deserve to ride it out.”
This school year, there were 605 students who transferred to other districts. The financially troubled Hollister district, which has experienced continual enrollment declines in recent years and subsequent funding decreases, has slightly more than 5,500 students this year.
McIntyre, in his first year as superintendent, said the “goal here is to do what we need to for our district.” But he also stressed how the board had not visited the concept of implementing the policy, or how it will transpire. An opposition group largely comprised of transfer families has formed and particularly has criticized the district’s stance that the strict limitations also will affect current transfer students, whose families now might have to re-apply.
“There’s still room for discussion out there at this point,” the superintendent said, adding how officials plan to “wade our way through this.”
Hollister district officials made the move in light of more than $11 million in cuts over the past two years to try and balance the budget. The district, designated with a negative financial certification, also faces the possibility of a state takeover.
McIntyre left open the potential for phasing in the new policy, meaning a less-severe impact on local families, and surrounding districts, in the short term.
It is too early to estimate the possible revenue gain for the district, but McIntyre said officials likely would not budget for obtaining more than 300 additional students, which would amount to about $1.5 million annually in added funding, as laid out in the state’s formula.
He underscored how the Hollister district is “sensitive to interests of families.”
“We’re having to make decisions we’d just as soon not like to make, and this is among them,” he said.
With such a large number of Hollister students affected, though, there will be a major impact on those surrounding districts that have taken in those kids. Spring Grove School in the North County Joint Union School District has accepted an increasing number of students in recent years. This year, transfers from Hollister and other districts make up 42 percent of enrollment, said Jennifer Bernosky, the principal and superintendent.
“The biggest thing, I think this change is going to be very tough for the community,” she said. “We have kids who have been at Spring Grove School since kindergarten.”
