Defining the landscape

Trustees mull transfer, attendance between Flathead High and Glacier High

What is fair and what is manageable?

That's what Kalispell school officials are working on as they write new policies for out-of-district admission and transfers between Kalispell schools.

As it stands, Flathead High's open-enrollment policy will be duplicated at Glacier High when it opens in fall 2007.

Students will be allowed to transfer between the two high schools one time only, barring extenuating circumstances.

But trustees and Superintendent Darlene Schottle still must put a fine point on restrictions designed to regulate influx from other school districts as well as the flow between Flathead and Glacier.

A pair of policies, one on out-of-district attendance and the other on in-district transfers, got their second readings at a Kalispell school board meeting Wednesday night. Formal adoption comes next.

Immediately after their extended discussion on the policies, trustees voted to open Glacier High School with freshmen, sophomores and juniors in fall 2007. All seniors will stay at Flathead to graduate in spring 2008, then both schools will have senior classes beginning that fall.

That decision will have a bearing on how, and why, attendance and transfer policies are developed.

Here are the two policies, in brief:

.With elementary classrooms chock-full already, it is rare to admit out-of-district students not covered by "mandatory attendance" - those who may be court-ordered to attend a Kalispell school, for example, or who may qualify by virtue of closer proximity to the Kalispell school. If they are admitted, tuition is charged.

But there is more flexibility at the high school, which generally opens its doors without charging tuition.

Both policies would give final decision-making authority to the superintendent. Decisions ultimately would be based on available space and academic factors, according to this second-reading draft.

But it allows admittance for change of residence, mental or physical health issues, academic program offerings and behavioral or safety issues. The superintendent would review a student's past school record, and could deny or set special conditions for attendance. Families would be responsible for transportation.

Application deadline would be April 30, with out-of-district students required to reapply each year.

. When Glacier High opens, there are bound to be students who live within Flathead's attendance boundaries or Glacier's boundaries who want to attend the opposite school.

This, along with requests for elementary students to attend schools outside their own neighborhood, prompted the new resident transfer policy.

A key provision would rule out high school transfers to accommodate extracurricular or co-curricular activities. This was designed to give both schools a better chance at offering balanced opportunities in activities and eliminate competition between them.

In that draft, all requests to transfer at the high school level would be made by the beginning of the prior semester. Elementary requests must be made by April 30.

If a student wants to move mid-year, principals of both schools would have to approve. If the student applies to move at the beginning of the following year, the deadline must be met, but a decision wouldn't be made until the end of the current year after all in-district students were placed.

A student could move to a different school if the family moved mid-year, but would have the right to stay at the former school - and would carry the responsibility for transportation.

The out-of-district attendance policy's provision for a home-district principal to sign off before Kalispell would accept a student was left out of the draft. Trustee Eve Dixon explained that principals at the rural elementaries polled did not want that responsibility, even though a district loses about $5,000 for each student who leaves.

"We need some communication with the other school before we admit the student," trustee Bill Sutton cautioned.

Trustee Tony Dawson, noting the rural principal may try to avoid being "the bad guy", added the home districts have a responsibility to make their schools the best possible. He admitted, too, that Kalispell holds a certain responsibiilty to help them get there - a task which already is being addressed in part through cooperative curriculum development.

Schottle said a courtesy phone call is placed to the home district, but if a student meets criteria he or she is accepted.

During the policy's first reading on Dec. 13, Assistant Superintendent Dan Zorn expressed a concern about wording. The policy appeared to let out-of-district students choose which high school they want to attend, while in-district students are not given a free choice.

Schottle tried to revise that impression.

"We want to put (out-of-district students) on no better than equal footing with the in-district students," Schottle said Wednesday night.

"Are we stating our desire and intent to not let the out-of-district kids pick their school?" Dixon questioned whether that attempt was successful.

Later in the meeting, board chairman Don Murray said a principal had cautioned some transfer requests will be very hard to turn down - particularly in cases where students would not have equal varsity opportunities as a junior in Glacier High's more-limited first year.

Schottle said her decision would hinge on how solid the reasons.

"They had better be very clear," she said. "It will be very uncomfortable to grant (some and not others). They will be watched closely."

When it came to accepting students from outlying high school districts, activities director Mark Dennehy suggested replacing the "space and academic factors" criteria with a provision to send transfer students to the high school nearest their town. In that scenario, Whitefish and Columbia Falls students would be assigned to Glacier High while Bigfork students would go to Flathead.

Zorn feared the number of students from Whitefish and Columbia Falls would overbalance those from Bigfork, and throw the two schools' population out of line.

Murray supported the idea. Sutton, on the other hand, argued for keeping the "space and academic factors" language.

Schottle returned to the provision that the superintendent will place these students in the most-suitable school.

In another suggestion, Flathead High principal Callie Langohr asked to replace the first-of-semester application deadline for mid-year transfers with a Dec. 15 deadline. Schottle said the more-restrictive draft could help prevent "semester shopping" and allow the school to get staffing in place earlier.

When evaluating reasons for transfer requests, several agreed that academics - for example, the International Baccalaureate Programme which will be offered only at Flathead High - are valid considerations.

In arguing against the ban on transfers for extracurricular and co-curricular activities, Murray said the school should protect the chance to offer the most opportunities possible.

"As a matter of policy, we don't want to be more restrictive with transfers than we need to be to prevent abuse," he said.

"To me (that provision) is more of a philosophical statement," trustee Mark Lalum said.

"But then, we're saying we'll consider it as long as you have a phony reason to give us," Murray countered.

Trustee Brad Walterskirchen summed it up by acknowledging the student population will have to split at some point, and a firm decision needs to be made on what reasons will and will not be accepted for transfers.

"If it's that important for my child to attend one school or the other," Walterskirchen said, "then I guess I'm going to go talk to a realtor."

Reporter Nancy Kimball can be reached at 758-4483 or by e-mail at nkimball@dailyinterlake.com