March 28, 2024

NCSD board revises elementary transfer procedures

Some parents will need to reapply every year

Elementary students will no longer be able to automatically transfer between the Newton Community School District’s four elementary schools, the school board decided Monday night. Board members revised the district’s policy in an effort to clear up confusion about the process. Students who’ve accepted a voluntary transfer will be allowed to stay at their buildings until they matriculate, but students who’ve applied for a transfer previously will need to reapply for next year, administrators said Monday.

Administrators have worked to adjust class sizes at all four elementary schools in order to keep student populations similar at each building. In the past, some children had been asked by the district to voluntarily transfer to another school with a smaller student population. NCSD Superintendent Bob Callaghan said the transfers were designed to help the district equalize the population at all four elementary schools.

“Are we perfect, no, and I don’t think we’ll ever be perfect,” Callaghan said. “We don’t expect there to be, what Tina (Ross) and I have discovered over the five years that we’ve done this is that it all kind of washes out.”

Those transfers had automatically renewed year after year, a practice that will continue moving forward Tina Ross, the district’s director of special programs said. In a letter mailed to the parents of transfer students signed by all four elementary school principals, parents are told unless they have moved, their child will still attend the same school if they accepted a voluntary transfer the following year.

“This is about families that we approached and asked if they would be willing to transfer,” Ross said. “We are not going to request that year after year they request for a transfer.”

Ross told board members on Monday night that the younger siblings of students who had previously received a transfer would be automatically enrolled in the same elementary building as their older sibling. However, if a child matriculates to Berg Middle School before their younger sibling enters elementary school the younger sibling would revert back to their home school.

Moving forward, district administrators will review all transfers before automatically granting each request. Students who have previously been allowed to transfer will be given preference to those who are requesting a transfer for the first time. The children and grandchildren of district employees will have their transfer requests automatically granted if they wish their child to attend school at building they work at, no matter where their home school is located. However, parents will be required to provide transportation for those students, no district transportation will be provided, Ross said. Previously district employees had been allowed to designate a school for their children to attend even if they didn’t work in the building, but Callaghan said Monday that practice has been abandoned.

“I think that there were some people that didn’t work at the school, they just worked in the district and there were getting their children in schools that may have been causing an issue,” Callaghan said.

Board member Graham Sullivan said while her home school is Aurora Heights her children have always been enrolled at Thomas Jefferson. During Monday’s meeting, Sullivan asked board members if all parents have received letters asking them to reapply for elementary transfers.

“I’m just wondering if I’m the only person who’s gotten that,” Sullivan said. “I’ll do whatever I have to do.”

Sullivan said she’d received a letter last year stating she no longer needed to apply for the transfer, but Callaghan pointed out the district had made some changes to its procedure.

“Last year you requested outside home school,” Callaghan said. “Procedures allow us to review annually.”

Parents who currently have a child who attends an elementary school that’s not their home school have been notified of the changes, Ross said. Parents who wish to apply to for a transfer for their elementary student must do so by June 7. Ross said administrators will review the requests the following days, she said parents could expect a decision shortly. On the forms, parents are asked to explain the reasoning behind their transfer requests, as well as select the school they prefer to send their child. The letter notes that priority will be given to student transfers which will help balance classroom sizes throughout the district or to provide students with functional skills needs or specific health needs.

“We’ve set the date of June 8 to meet, and we’ll let families know right away,” Ross said.