CAT Tracks for September 6, 2003 IS THERE A CHOICE?

A-J BOARD CONSIDERS 'CHOICE' SCHOOL TRANSFERS: NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND ACT ALLOWS STUDENTS TO TRANSFER

BY CALEB HALE
THE SOUTHERN
[Sat Sep 06 2003]

ANNA -- The Anna-Jonesboro Community high school board plans to decide at its next meeting whether it will become the first school district in Illinois to accept students from "choice" schools, under the No Child Left Behind Act.

School superintendent Bill Schildknecht said the board will vote during its Sept. 15 meeting on whether or not to begin accepting students from designated "choice" schools in neighboring districts.

Under the No Child Left Behind Act, schools that fall too far below academic standards must allow students the choice to attend neighboring school districts not under any academic warning.

There are currently four schools surrounding the AJCHS district that are designated as "choice" schools -- Cairo, Meridian, Buncombe grade school and Dongola high school.

Only students in grades 9 through 12 would be eligible to transfer to AJCHS, should the board accept the students.

Under distance limitations set by the "choice" school provisions, District 2 Regional Superintendent Dan Anderson said only Dongola is eligible to transfer students to AJCHS.

Dongola Unit Schools Superintendent William Mauser said he sent out letters to all high school parents explaining that Dongola is listed as a "choice" school and that they have the option to transfer their students to a neighboring district not on any academic warning list.

The letter does not specifically list AJCHS as an option, Mauser said, because the board has yet to take an official vote on whether to accept "choice" school students. Mauser said Vienna high school's board has also been discussing its options to accept "choice" students. At this point, he believes its board will not take in additional students from other distrcts.

While AJCHS is the first school district prepared to take a vote on the "choice" school provisions, Anderson said many schools all over Illinois are beginning to ask for forms on the intergovernmental agreements that must be made between "choice" schools and schools accepting the students.

Anderson said should AJCHS accept Dongola students, Dongola must pay for their transportation to the new school district through Title I funds. "Their obligation is to utilize 20 percent of Title I funds for transportation," he said.

After that, Anderson said, the costs are transferred to another source, which is something that will have to be worked out between the school districts.

Schildknecht said there are a lot of questions surrounding the acceptance of the provisions. "We're in unknown territory right now," he said.

AJCHS can set a limit on how many students it will accept. "We don't know what impact it could have," Schildknecht said. "If we set a limit we have to accept the lowest achieving students."

Anderson said the "choice" provision is set to ensure that poor and poor-achieving students get the opportunity to enter a better school district. "The thinking there is poor parents have less an opportunity to pay tuition for their kids to attend private schools," he said.

Students of "choice" schools transferring to another school are not required to pay a non-residency tuition to attend, Schildknecht said.

Mauser said giving parents their choice of schools is a good idea, but there are some drawbacks under the No Child Left Behind provisions. He said if a school accepting "choice" students goes on the academic warning list at any point, the "choice" school is no longer obligated to use funds to cover transportation costs.

"You kind of take a gamble," Mauser said. "That may never happen to A-J, but that is really the only downside."

Mauser said parents in his district have until Sept. 30 to respond to the notification letters he sent. So far, he said, three parents have expressed interest in transferring their children.

Discussion has taken place in the past about consolidating the Dongola and Anna-Jonesboro high school districts. Anderson said he doesn't expect the "choice" school provision to be a consolidation by attrition matter.

Mauser said consolidation of school districts never comes because of academic performance issues, it comes over money issues. "It may not be over their dead bodies, but it may be over their dead budgets," he said.

caleb.hale@thesouthern.com