The board Thursday night adopted an open enrollment policy in hopes of generating revenue for the district. The district loses more than $535,000 annually to students who open enroll out of Fairfield, Superintendent Paul Otten said. The state reimburses school districts for students who enroll in, to the tune of $6,000 per student.
As he had previously, board member Don Nuss spoke out against open enrollment and cast the lone vote against the policy, particularly because it stated that the district may allow for transportation for open enrolled students “if there’s space available in the established bus routes,” Nuss said.
“I’m going against the grain here, but I just feel that’s another way of just throwing dirt in the face of the community ... I don’t feel that’s fair or that’s right,” Nuss said.
Otten said careful consideration will be given to keeping class sizes small. Students who have been suspended for 10 days or expelled will not be accepted, he said. He also pointed out that the board will review the policy annually to determine how effective it is. The district will not expand or create programs with open enrollment and will not be hiring additional staff for that purpose, Otten has said.
Another change high school students will see next year will see a change in start and dismissal times. For the 2012-2013 school year, the start time will be at 8 a.m. and the dismissal time will be at 2:30 p.m. This is being done because high school teachers need more time to meet with administrators, and the high school time has been too short, Otten said, adding that other buildings do not have this problem.
“We have to meet as often as we can with our teaching staff to provide professional development as we transition to the new core (standards),” he said.
Fairfield Freshman School Principal Matt Wissman announced Thursday he will resign at the end of this school year to take a new job as a financial planner. He has been the head principal for four years and has been with the district for 15 years, he said.
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