Board restricts open enrollment to kindergarten and first grade

The district will be accepting applications April 27.
By JOHN W. GOODWIN JR.
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
LIBERTY -- Open enrollment in the school district here will not be open to pupils in every grade level next school year.
School board members decided to offer open enrollment only to pupils in kindergarten and first grade. The district will allow 10 open-enrollment pupils in each of the two grade levels each year, schools Superintendent Larry Prince said Wednesday.
Pupils already enrolled in other grade levels will remain, Prince said.
The decision to make the change passed by a vote of 4-1 Wednesday night. Prince said board member Gloria Lang voted against the move, asking the board to consider a one-year moratorium on all open enrollment.
Prince said by permitting 10 open-enrollment pupils into those early grades each year, the district will ultimately meet its goal of 120 open-enrollment pupils districtwide who have progressed through the system from the early years of their education.
The district, Prince said, will also see the financial benefits of allowing the 110 to 120 pupils into its student ranks. The district loses money when pupils leave the school system for other schools under open enrollment. The money is brought back to the district when other pupils come into the system through open enrollment.
What's behind this
"We are doing this to maintain the financial stability of the district as well as the educational stability of the district," said Prince. "The students and the district will benefit from this."
Applications for kindergarten and first-grade pupils to attend school here under the open-enrollment program will be distributed to parents only. Applications can be picked up at the board of education office on Shady Road between 9 and 11 a.m. and 1 and 3 p.m. April 27.
No applications will be distributed after April 27 or accepted after May 11.
According to records supplied by the school administration, the district currently has only 110 open-enrollment pupils among its 1,783 population. The majority of those -- 102 -- come from Youngstown. Two pupils are from each of the neighboring communities of Hubbard and Girard, two from Cortland, and one pupil each from Niles and Austintown.
jgoodwin@vindy.com