District 5 approves transfer policy

The Daily Inter Lake

Kalispell high school students will have to stick with either Glacier High or Flathead High once they are assigned - or have a solid academic, safety or health reason to request a transfer.

That's one of the key provisions laid down Tuesday night when the Flathead High School and District 5 Elementary school board passed its a series of policies dealing with student issues.

The series includes several policy sections dealing with foreign exchange students, bullying and other threatening behaviors, student discipline, use of illegal substances, emergency medical treatment, and more.

Three individual policies were put on hold for further work:

. One, establishing when and whether out-of-district students are allowed to attend Kalispell schools, could alter the current practice of admitting students as long as there is space. It would assume denial unless students qualify for mandatory attendance or get administrators' approval.

It also set an April 30 annual deadline to apply for admission, giving administrators time to check with the student's own school principal before granting the request. It appears to require annual re-application, and could effectively deny the large number of out-of-district students who apply in May and June each year.

. Another policy, dealing with search and seizure of student belongings, needs a better definition of "probable cause" or "reasonable grounds," the trustees decided.

. A third one regulating cell phones on school grounds will be revised regarding cell phone usage inside the school building during lunch periods.

But in-district student transfers drew the most discussion before the policy was adopted Tuesday.

As written, the policy can be applied to elementary students asking to attend a school different from their neighborhood school - but board discussion focused on transfers between Flathead High and Glacier High.

The policy lays out three standard criteria for granting a student's request:

Mental or physical health problems, academic program offerings and transfers ordered because of behavioral or safety issues.

Flathead High will remain the city's only International Baccalaureate campus and Glacier High will be the only one offering advanced-placement classes.

A full curriculum will be offered at both schools based on career clusters, but individual courses will be tailored to each school to offer comparable, but not necessarily identical, studies.

However, some courses such as fourth-year foreign language or small-enrollment specialized classes may not be offered at one of the high schools.

In such cases, students may take up to three courses a semester at the opposite high school - while providing their own transportation between schools - without asking to transfer. A transfer could be considered but not guaranteed because of just one or two courses, but it's mandatory if a student wants to take four.

Unless the student moves to a different home in the other district, only one transfer will be allowed in a high school career.

No transfers would be granted simply for a student to play sports or participate in other activities.

Even if such a request were granted, Montana High School Association rules require that a student asking to be transferred automatically is ineligible to participate in activities for the first 90 class days at the new school. That would rule out participation in virtually all fall and winter sports.

High school administrators argued against allowing next year's seniors a choice on whether to attend Glacier or Flathead, primarily for those reasons and the possibility that neither school would have enough students to compete at the Class AA level.

Trustee Don Murray cautioned that transfers requests must be considered on their true grounds, not reasons manufactured to comply with the policy.

Superintendent Darlene Schottle promised to look below the surface.

"There is potential for using academics and that perhaps not being the underlying reason," Schottle said. Availability of a specific class could be listed as the reason, for example, but the real trigger could be the opposite school's football program.

That said, the policy does allow flexibility for extenuating circumstances. Individual requests will be considered by a committee made up of Schottle, Glacier High Principal Callie Langohr and Flathead High Principal Peter Fusaro (or the two elementary principals involved) and the student's counselor.

Trustee Keith Regier made the case for special consideration for this year's sophomores. They could have come from an outlying elementary school two years ago, the junior high last year, be in Flathead High this year and then go to Glacier High next year if they live within that district. To offer some stability, he said the committee may want to approve their requests to remain at Flathead.

Family transportation issues could be a factor, too.

But requests to let younger siblings of next year's seniors attend Flathead High just because their older brother or sister is there (Glacier High will not have a senior class until its second year of operation) will not stand on those grounds alone.

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