“Exhilarating,” is how student Jack Richards of Burton described being let back into West Geauga Schools next year.
The West Geauga Schools Board of Education took action at its June 19 meeting to readmit Jack and 30 other previously open enrolled students along with children of teachers who work at the school for the 2014-15 school year.
Jack, an incoming senior was one of the students who had been cut in the program late last month as a result of caps placed on open enrollment numbers in late February that would hold the number to 10 percent of the resident student population.
Jack’s friend, Sarah Graber of Macedonia, who was cut as well, is now relieved.
“I’ve been a West Geauga student for three years,” she said. “I was considering an online school rather than attending classes at Nordonia High School. Everyone here is easy to talk to, the students, the teachers, everyone. You can talk through assignments and understand what is expected of you.”
The students who started at West G want to finish there, especially the middle school and high school students, said Dawn Richards, Jack’s mother.
“It’s not because of these meetings. It’s because of what happens inside these walls each day that makes the difference to these kids,” she said. “I would think that the community would be proud that so many kids want to go to school here.”
The five-member board voted 4-1 vote to expand open enrollment to re-admit the displaced students as well as the children of West Geauga teachers, according to the union contract, which could add up to 58 additional students this coming fall.
Board member Jackie Dottore voted against expanding the program. She pointed out that open enrollment applicants are informed in writing that their acceptance is only valid for that year, and that they must reapply each year.
Board President Dan Thoreson, who made the motion to re-admit the displaced students, said he was advised by the school’s legal counsel that the action could be taken without having to open up the program to other students who applied for open enrollment.
He said open enrollment students could not be grandfathered in.
Thoreson said according to the school’s policies and procedures, previously enrolled non-resident students are given a higher priority status, with the top priority given to resident students. Also impinging on the decision is the availability of facilities and staffing.
He said he favored re-admitting the displaced students at this point because he had heard so many of them say they needed more time to explore other alternatives. He pledged the board would decide the matter sooner during the next school year.
In his first meeting as interim superintendent, Michael Nutter suggested open enrollment be curbed over time without affecting the students by admitting fewer at the lower grades.
“We need to go in another direction,” he said. “People are watching.”
Michael Douglas, who joined the board in late May, agreed.
“The school district has become the brunt of jokes,” he said. “Not everyone will come here to work. We’re going to have to reconcile our differences. We’re talking about children, not numbers. The decision should be doing the right thing to protect the kids.“
Douglas described open enrollment as a complicated issue.
“It’s like an onion,” he said. “The more layers you peel back, the more there are.”
After the meeting he said he felt the situation was improving and the board was starting to work together better.
“People told me I should have my head examined when I agreed to be on this board,” Douglas said. “I did it because I felt I could make a difference.”
Thoreson, who drafted the resolution to reinstate the students, said he did so because he heard heartfelt stories from so many students and their parents who said the board’s late decision did not give them time to find suitable alternatives because other programs were closed or cost-prohibitive.
“I can’t say how we will decide this in the future, but next year, parents and students will not be able to say they didn’t have time to make arrangements,” he said.
Board member Tom Phelps added, “I don’t think we had enough information when we were placed in the position of making the decision (to cap open enrollment). We left some children out in our struggle to control the numbers. Going forward our policy has to be very clear.”
Board member Ben Kotowski said open enrollment brings in revenue and helps to offset the school’s declining resident population of students.
“It also adds a small fraction of minorities,” he said. “The world our own kids are going out to work in is more diverse.”