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Allen East Approves Open Enrollment: School Will Begin Accepting Pupils From Other Districts Next School Year

Posted on: Wednesday, 21 December 2005, 15:00 CST

By Beth L. Jokinen, The Lima News, Ohio, The Lima News, Ohio

Dec. 21--HARROD -- The last school district in the county to not accept pupils through open enrollment is changing its policy.

Allen East school board members approved at their Tuesday meeting to allow open enrollment. The district will begin accepting pupils from all districts next school year.

"Open enrollment has survived the test of time among many area schools, and we've waited to see if open enrollment proved to be a good thing," Superintendent Michael Richards said.

Richards said one of the main reasons for the policy change is that the district is seeing smaller classes compared to the past. The district now has fewer than 1,100 pupils, compared to 1,300 within the last 10 years.

While the district has not been accepting pupils, it has been losing pupils through open enrollment. Richards said about 35 Allen East pupils a year open enroll to other districts, costing Allen East schools about $181,000. State money follows pupils to the school they attend.

"We're not out to make money, we're just hoping to maintain what is ours," he said. "If there wasn't open enrollment, those 30-some kids would be in the Allen East Local Schools. What we hope to do is just break even."

Richards said the new policy could strengthen the financial condition of the district, and could delay the need to ask voters for additional money.

"There's no guarantees, but it could help," he said. "Instead of letting money fly out, we're going to slow that down a little bit."

The district had a meeting on open enrollment last month. Richards said there has not been much opposition from the community, just some concerns about the school's philosophy changing. He said that will not happen, and guidelines the board will set in the coming months will make sure of that.

"We need to maintain open enrollment within the scope of our operating philosophy in dealing with class sizes and learning climate," he said. "And not waiver because we've chosen open enrollment."

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Copyright (c) 2005, The Lima News, Ohio

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Source: The Lima News

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