State law stopping transfers
Posted on Thursday, July 26, 2007
The West Fork School District has turned down most of the 75 school choice transfer requests it received from students in the Greenland School District due to a race clause in the school choice regulations.
Superintendent Diane Barrett said under the current school choice law, a district cannot admit students under school choice if it has a higher percentage of students from that race than the students' home district.
About 95 percent of the West Fork students are white, the highest percentage in Washington County, so it could not take in more student choice requests from white students.
Also, Barrett said she had to turn away some school choice requests from black students because West Fork had a higher percentage of black students than Greenland. The district was able to admit some Native American and Hispanic students.
"It's unfortunate. I sympathize with the parents, but I feel I have to comply with the rules," Barrett said, adding that she has discussed the situation with the Arkansas Department of Education.
The students could still try to attend West Fork schools through the traditional transfer route by getting approval from the Greenland School District.
The West Fork district received about 75 school choice transfer requests from Greenland residents. The vast majority of those were residents in the former Winslow attendance area.
The Greenland School Board closed the 90-student Winslow Elementary School after the 2006-2007 school year ended, prompting many parents to request a school choice transfer.
Under the school choice law, a student can request a transfer to another district without approval from his or her home district.
The Arkansas Legislature amended the school choice law and the new regulations would allow West Fork to admit the students, but the changes won't be in effect until after the upcoming school year ends, Barrett said.
The rush by Winslow-area residents to apply to West Fork echoed the summer of 2005, when the Greenland School District closed Winslow High School and more than 120 Greenland residents submitted transfer requests to West Fork.
Barrett, who was not the superintendent at the time, said she doesn't believe the district erred by admitting those students that year. The regulations did not affect West Fork the way they have this year.
"The eligibility codes were different as far as I know," she said.
Greenland Board of Education President Bill Groom said he wasn't sure how the board would go about processing transfer requests if they're submitted by most of the parents whose school choice applications were denied.
The district has a policy of granting transfers if the request meets certain conditions. These include if the student has a sibling already enrolled in another district or has a parent employed in another district.
The board generally does not approve transfers, however, simply because someone prefers another school, Groom said.
"My take on it is we would probably follow that policy, but we're going to take a real careful look at it," he said.
He suggested Winslow residents who still want to transfer should go ahead and apply for the transfer, and those who have decided to stay should go ahead and register at the Greenland schools.
"I think the adults are having a harder time making the transition than the kids are, " Groom said. "Some of them have changed their minds and decided this is not a bad place to be."
The Greenland School Board is scheduled to meet tonight. Groom said he expected the board to discuss the situation, but it isn't an official agenda item because they only recently received word that West Fork had to deny requests.
"Everybody was surprised by this," he said.
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