Clark-Pleasant schools is opening its doors to more transfer students than ever before.
For the first time in its history, Clark-Pleasant Community Schools will allow transfers from other school districts at all grade levels. The transfer window is open until Friday and can be accessed through a link on the school district’s website.
Clark-Pleasant schools previously restricted its inward migration. This school year, students could not transfer to Grassy Creek Elementary School or Clark-Pleasant Middle School due to capacity issues. During the 2018-19 and 2019-20 school years, students from other school districts could only transfer in at the kindergarten and high school levels. Before then, there were no out-of-district transfers accepted, with the exception of students related to Clark-Pleasant staff members, said John Venter, the district’s spokesperson.
Clark-Pleasant schools did not have transfer students due to population growth in the area. In the past six years alone, Clark-Pleasant schools’ enrollment has grown by almost 13%, from 6,017 students in 2014 to 6,790 students in the fall.
The opening of a new elementary school this summer will ease crowding at Grassy Creek Elementary School and will allow about 25 out-of-district students to transfer in to the district’s elementary schools at each grade level. The high school grades will allow 25 students as well, with the middle school allowing 10 students per grade, Venter said.
Before 2009, state money for schools didn’t follow students, but instead stemmed from the property tax base within the boundaries of the school district. After the law changed to allow money to follow students, Clark-Pleasant kept its policy for the most part, tweaking it so staff members could bring their children in from out of district. For several years, staff members were the only exception to the non-transfer rule, but starting in 2018, that changed, he said.
“Coming from not allowing any transfers to children not residing in the district to somewhat more open, we didn’t want to cause overcrowding. The school board decided to have it be gradual,” Venter said. “When the money followed attendance, that’s when doors opened across the state. Districts that did not allow open enrollment soon were at a disadvantage for funding because they might not have as many kids as districts with open enrollment.”
To accommodate transfer students at Clark-Pleasant Middle School, the school will likely utilize alternative classroom spaces, such as storage rooms, something the district has been doing for years, he said.
Although Clark-Pleasant administrators set a cap on the number of transfer students allowed at each grade level, it is somewhat flexible. A number that is reasonably within the cap will likely result in all students getting their transfer requests granted. A lottery system would only be utilized if the number of requests far exceeds the cap, Venter said.
“We want to make sure we cover the most positive outcomes,” Venter said. “We want to use as much of our capacity for educating children. If there’s capacity to be filled, we want them to be here. We just don’t want a situation with overcrowding where we’re struggling to give services.”
Transfer requests can be filled out at the following link by Friday:
https://cpcsd.iad1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_5tlCacmEzJGpzTM
Source: Clark-Pleasant Community School Corporation
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