School board looks at requirements to leave district
In a tight budget year, more students living in the San Benito
High School District are attending high schools outside the
district. A proposal from administrators would make it harder for
students to leave.
School board looks at requirements to leave district
In a tight budget year, more students living in the San Benito High School District are attending high schools outside the district. A proposal from administrators would make it harder for students to leave.
Although they live in the San Benito High School District, Nancy Lombard-Gay’s daughter graduated from Anzar last year.
“It was actually my daughter’s choice,” Lombard-Gay said. “She knew some people that went to Anzar and she felt their program was very good. She liked the smaller schools. I personally agree with her.”
Her daughter received a top-notch education at Anzar, Lombard-Gay said.
“Anzar doesn’t have quite all the sports,” Lombard-Gay said. “They don’t have football. My opinion, not necessarily a loss.”
But for the district, lost students means lost dollars. District officials receive more than $7,100 per student, according to documents from the San Benito High School District.
The 64 students who will attend other districts this year are worth $455,000 – enough to hire 10 teachers.
“Our administrative [regulations] are extremely broad,” said Karen Schroder, director of student services. “I don’t think it’s in the district’s best interest to go way above and beyond what is dictated in the [educational] code.
Although state law does not require it, students are allowed to transfer due to interest in an educational program not offered in the district of residence or to provide a change in school environment for reasons of personal and social adjustment, Schroder said.
“That’s pretty normal in policy,” said Jacqueline Muñoz, superintendent of the Aromas-San Juan Unified School District.
The interdistrict transfer policy appeared before the San Benito County school board at the Aug. 13 meeting.
Board members sent it back to staff for more consideration, said Evelyn Muro, a board member.
“I don’t think we have the total picture of what’s going on or anything,” Muro said. “What are the factors that are influencing it? You want to be sure that you’ve got as clear a picture as you can of the situation before you start making decisions.”
Most students who transferred are attending Anzar or a school in the Gilroy Unified School District, based on information from Schroder. A few are going to Los Banos or San Jose.
The transfers go both ways.
Although her son graduated from Anzar, Barbara Boyd’s daughters are attending San Benito.
“It was their choice,” Boyd said. “[San Benito] High offers a broader range of curriculum. They are both active and there was more choice for all the extras they could get involved with.”
Her oldest daughter is on the color guard and her youngest made the cheerleading squad, options unavailable at Anzar.
“They’re where they should be,” Boyd said. “I have a good comparison and I don’t have a problem with Anzar. If my kids went to Anzar they’d get a great education.”
To meet individual student needs, San Juan Aromas School District Officials allow transfers on a case-by-case basis for up to five years.
“Things go up and down and they tend to be like waves,” said Stan Rose, superintendent of the San Benito High School District. “I think it probably will fluctuate and do something else again. If it’s a fluctuation that’s caused now because it’s something that’s in the policy, then that needs to be looked at.”
In 2006-2007 more students entered the SBHS district than left. That year, 57 students entered while 27 left.
Most parents request a transfer for incoming freshman, Schroder said.
“I think that when you live within a district you ought to at least enroll your child,” Schroder said. “We offer a wide variety of programs.”
For some parents and students, the programs are not the concern.
“I think it would be very difficult for me to get around that campus now that it’s so big,” said Mary Church, a student who is blind who started as a freshman at Anzar this year. “With all the students it would be really hard.”
Her older sister Jessica also goes to Anzar.
“At Anzar you pretty much know everyone at every grade level,” Jessica said. “Within the first two months you figure out who everyone is and you get to know them better, which is a lot nicer I think.”
Jessica is getting a really good education at Anzar, said Kathleen Church, their mother.
“They really get to know the kids,” Church said. “A lot of the teachers these days are just so busy trying to keep their classrooms running that they don’t have time to really worry about the kids who are in their classes.”
The number of students transferring between Anzar and San Benito fluctuates every year, Schroder said.
While 22 students from Aromas-San Juan are attending SBHS, 31 former SBHS students have enrolled at Anzar, reversing the trend from two years ago by about 10 students.
“Large high schools actually are trying to find ways to make themselves small,” Muñoz said. “Schools within schools. Houses. Ways to break the walls down.”
Last year, all Anzar graduates went on to college, Muñoz said.
For the first ten years, Anzar’s interdistrict transfer policy was much tighter, Muñoz said.
“There’s certain laws that we have to abide by,” Muñoz said. “Because of laws, childcare, employment, etc, it’s very difficult to keep kids in a district when families don’t want to be there.”
This year, nearly 40 percent of interdistrict transfers are attending high schools in the Gilroy Unified School District, based on information from Schroder.
While 25 students from SBHS are going to school in Gilroy, only two Gilroy students are at SBHS.
Most transfers probably have parents who are working in Silicon Valley, said Roger Cornia, enrollment coordinator for the Gilroy Unified School District. If parents are driving by, it is easy to drop them off at the high school.
“What’s required by state law is if they work in the district and they want to transfer, or because of childcare,” Cornia said. “The second reason would be our early college program. We do admit some students from San Benito County.”
The T.J. Owens Early College Academy, which started last year, is located at the Gavilan College Campus in Gilroy. At the end of the five-year program students receive a high school diploma and an associates degree.
“Five to ten students may have been from Hollister because they want to try this program,” Cornia said.
Officials from Gilroy Unified School District allow interdistrict transfers due to interest in a program not currently offered by the district, Cornia said.
“We’re just trying to work with the parents and accommodate where we can,” Cornia said. “If they want to come to Gilroy, they also have to have permission from Hollister.”
If interdistrict transfers were hurting a program that officials were trying to build, they would not be allowed, Cornia said.
“Any district’s going to do that,” Cornia said.
