USD 503 Superintendent Lori Ray presented information to the Board of Education Monday pertaining to the new law going into effect regarding open enrollment.
Beginning in June, parents can apply to enroll their children in any Kansas school district, regardless of where they live.
“We can’t turn anyone away unless they are suspended or expelled from another Kansas school,” Ray said.
During the last year, Ray said 10 to 12 students tried to enroll who were considered “students not in good standing” from where they came from, whether due to attendance, behavior, or grades. Legally districts can’t turn those students away beginning the 2024-2025 school year.
“We’re going to do just as we do with every student that comes to our door. We welcome them, we greet them where they are academically, we give them a blue shirt and we tell them, ‘Glad you are here to be a Viking,’ and we get to work,” Ray said.
The only other cause for being able to turn away students is not having the room to take them because the classes are full.
Every school board, before May 1, must determine how many students they can accept from outside their boundaries, based on the size of their facilities and number teachers. That number most be posted to the district’s website by June 1. School’s will be audited to ensure compliance.
Ray said she has gone through enrollment and what it is per grade level. She provided the board with historical enrollment numbers. The numbers show the district has stayed relatively stable in recent years. Parsons is one of two in Southeast Kansas (Pittsburg being the other), that has remained stable and not had big losses.
Ray said the district must consider what the goal is for student-teacher ratios. Ray said she didn’t give hard and fast numbers, but provided goals, such as 20 children in a kindergarten or first grade classroom. The numbers Ray gave the board would be the district’s ideal numbers per grade level, like 125 per grade level in the middle school. She said maybe 130 students per grade level at the high school since they are a little more spread out.
Ray talked with the city and the county to see if there are anything going on that would impact enrollment and was told there was nothing immediately forthcoming that they knew of, such as a big industry moving here that would bring a vast number of jobs and influx of people.
Ray has worked to predict open enrollment numbers based on the number of students the district currently has, but it is difficult to say the least.
“With our foster care situation and the number of kids that are transient in our district, it’s a shot in the dark,” Ray said. For instance, she said, the district had 20 new students enroll when they came back from Christmas break.
The board will vote on the set open enrollment number at the April board meeting, once it is solidified.
In June, any student who hasn’t attended USD 503 before and is not in-district boundaries can apply for enrollment.
If the district has 11 open positions, and if 12 apply then the law requires they do a lottery.
The district will accept new out-of-district applications in June. Regular enrollment is in July. Out-of-district students applying under the new law must be notified by July 15 if they have been accepted.
Students wanting to switch schools just to play for a sports team need to know that unless they physically move into the new district, they are required to sit out a year before playing, according to the Kansas State High School Activities Association (KSHSAA).
Local tax dollars do not follow the out-of-district students to the new district and federal tax dollars will be delayed by a year, as they are based on a district’s prior year’s enrollment. For some districts this could create a financial hardship.
Ray said she does not anticipate this law will impact smaller rural school districts like it will big city districts like in the Kansas City area.
Strategic Planning
The board will be setting a date in the coming month for a work pertaining to developing strategic goals for the district’s new Strategic Plan.
The district received input from 280 different people and the top needs the majority said need to be addressed are early childhood development, family engagement and chromic absenteeism.
Ray said the board will work to determine areas that need focus under each of the selected goal areas.
She and Assistant Superintendent Jeff Pegues will then go back to administrators to discuss what the goals are, the plan of how it will be done, how they are going to measure what they did it, and who is going to do it.
Ray said she and Pegues will then write the action plans with the goals and the people responsible, and then they will bring everything back to the board for approval.
“What makes it difficult in something like this is, it’s all important and are things that need to be addressed one way or another, but we need to have some items that are specific,” Ray said. “We need some guidance on what items the board wants action plans developed on.
Those things will then be added to the district’s accountability report.
The work session will be set for 6 p.m. sometime in the next 30 days.
IN OTHER BUSINESS
Heard April 22 is the last LETRS Training for elementary staff. With that, all staff pre-K through fifth grade, special education, instructional coaches and administration will have completed both volumes, which is something very few districts around the state have accomplished. Ray said it gives the district a distinct advantage.
Approved new custodial evaluations.
Heard Tri-County is actively recruiting. They presently have 25 openings for special education staff.
Heard the district received a total of $16,019 in donations for its schools, which included several large donations for a scoreboard.
Approved a partnership agreement with Jobs for Americas Graduates - Kansas, for the 2024-2025 school year at a cost of $12,500.
Approved the Spark Wheel Memorandum of Understanding for the 2024-2026 school years for a total of $25,000 to serve both the middle school and high school.
Approved the membership in Kansas Association of School Boards.
Approved elementary math curriculum recommended after an extensive review.
Approved renewal KASB legal assistance fund contract.
Approved the high school course description handbook.
Approved the middle school course description handbook.
Approved the purchase of a relatively new maintenance truck at a maximum cost of $35,000.
Approved negotiations letter to PNEA.
Took action on personnel.
Heard April 8 is the next regular board meeting.