OPEN ENROLLMENT Four schools deny option

Several districts enacted open enrollment for next school year.
By DENISE DICK
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- The superintendent of one of four Trumbull County school districts that do not offer open enrollment calls that policy a way of robbing Peter to pay Paul.
Lakeview Superintendent Matt Chojnacki said his district examined the open-enrollment idea about a year ago and decided against it. Although that policy isn't ironclad, the district is focused on passing its levy in the August special election.
Lakeview, Champion, Lordstown and Maplewood are the only districts that don't offer open enrollment. The remaining 16 Trumbull County districts offer the option in some form.
"If you consider the whole concept of open enrollment, it's really robbing Peter to pay Paul," he said.
Chojnacki believes a school district is for the residents and taxpayers who have paid and worked to make that district as good as it is, and called the open-enrollment idea unfair.
"You're balancing your budget by taking students from other districts," Chojnacki said.
The district this year allowed pupils from other districts to privately pay tuition of about $3,500 to attend Lakeview, but only three pupils have taken advantage of it.
He estimated that fewer than six Lakeview pupils use open enrollment to attend other district schools.
"If people want to attend Lakeview schools, they can move to the community, which is a fine place to live," Chojnacki said.
Now open
Liberty, Hubbard, Niles, Girard, Howland and LaBrae school districts each enacted open enrollment for the 2004-05 school year to deal with financial difficulties. McDonald initiated the policy for the 2003-04 school year.
Because state money follows a pupil, pupils bring that cash with them when they opt for one district over another.
"In certain classrooms, some seats are available, and if we don't have folks within the township to fill them, we wanted to see if we could fill them with students coming in," Liberty Superintendent Larry Prince said.
The district has filled the open-enrollment slots for next year and expects 100 to 110 pupils from other districts. The district gets about $5,000 from the state per pupil.
Most of those are coming from the Youngstown City School District and parochial schools within the Youngstown district.
"We didn't anticipate impacting any district in particular," Prince said.
He said a "handful" of Liberty pupils use open enrollment to attend other districts.
Hasn't been discussed
Champion Superintendent Pamela Hood said open enrollment hasn't been discussed in that district. "I'm not saying that it may not come up in the future," she said.
About 30 pupils who live in Champion use open enrollment to attend neighboring Bristol and Southington schools, Hood said.
Warren has allowed pupils from other districts to attend for several years, and between 80 and 90 pupils from other districts take advantage of that option.
"As a superintendent, if a student is going to go to another school district, I'd rather see them go to another public school rather than go to a community or a charter school," said Rocco Adduci, Weathersfield superintendent.
His district opened enrollment to pupils living in contiguous school districts several years ago and plans to open it statewide for next school year.
Keeping with tradition
The initial change occurred after the state enacted its computer tracking system of pupils, and it was discovered that 80 to 90 pupils who had been attending the district actually lived in the Niles and Austintown districts, Adduci said.
"These were students whose parents and grandparents and relatives had always attended Weathersfield," he said.
The school board adopted open enrollment for adjacent districts so those pupils could continue to attend the district.
Adduci said about 190 pupils use the open-enrollment option to attend Weathersfield, and each pupil brings about $5,200 in state funding.
"That's our lifeblood right now," he said.
The board decided to widen enrollment across the state after pupils in noncontiguous districts, many with relatives attending Weathersfield, expressed interest.
denise_dick@vindy.com