Inter-district transfer students have been the subjects of serious debate in the Albany Unified School District. This past spring and summer, the district took decisive action on the matter, mandating that all students re-register for the 2011-2012 school year.
“There have long been rumblings in the community, that AUSD was an easy district to ‘cheat’ with regard to entrance into the schools,” said Board of Education President Pat Low. “This is clearly unfair to the families who work hard and pay rent in the district, the families who go through the process of filling out all the paperwork for inter-district transfer and wait on waiting lists patiently hoping for a coveted space, and finally homeowners who invest in Albany and do pay property taxes to support the schools,” Low said.
As a result, about 60 Albany High School students were unable to return to the school this year, and many others had their returns delayed while establishing their Albany residency or getting their transfers approved. The total enrollment at Albany High School in the 2010-2011 school year was 1,268 students; that number dropped to 1,180 students for the current school year.
Overall district enrollment, and the impact of inter-district transfers on it, is difficult to figure. Some students were re-admitted, some were not offered admission and some students moved from a wait list to Albany Schools. When space is available, the school district tries to accommodate the children of district or city of Albany employees.
District enrollment presently stands at 3,809, down about 70 students from 3,882 last year.
Inter-district students pose a challenging problem for school officials. Each student yields the district about $5,200 annually in what are known as basic revenue limit funds from the state of California. (Those payments, based on individual student attendance or “ADA,” are supposed to be $6,500 per student, but current state financial problems dictate a smaller payment to the district.)
Districts like Albany supplement the basic state funds with local monies, resulting in what is known as total per-pupil spending. In Albany, because of community support through things like parcel taxes, total per-pupil funding is significantly greater than the basic state contributions.
Although additional students, such as inter-district transfers, result in additional basic revenue limit funds, such money does not come without controversy.
Some Albany residents express concern over students whose families do not “pay their share” for school improvements and programs funded through bond and parcel tax measures, which are shouldered by Albany residents. While a transfer student might yield the basic revenue limit funding, their family is not paying for the local Albany funding.
Other residents are frustrated over families who demonstrate residency through unethical or dishonest means.
Low also said, “The second emphasis is safety for students. The district needs to know where people really live and how to contact their families in an emergency.”
Concerns over transfers were most recently expressed during the Measure I and J campaigns, the successful emergency and long-term parcel tax efforts, and the Measure E bond effort, which is funding the new Aquatic Center and classroom additions.
Some believe that the district is now enforcing strict enrollment rules to ensure positive voter response for future tax and bond measures.
Within this controversy are real students, whose lives, academic and athletic plans, not to mention friendships and families, have been caught up in this economic and political turmoil.
“I got accepted back on September 2 into AHS, but my brother did not, because he is a freshman and the district said that no freshman got accepted, because there wasn’t enough space in the 9th grade,” said current AHS sophomore Julie Kao.
“My brother was accepted back just yesterday [six weeks into school],” Kao continued.
Before being accepted back into the Albany district, Julie Kao had no choice but to attend El Cerrito for a week. Jumping between the two schools and having her family split up in two different districts resulted in frustration and inconvenience.
“I re-registered in the summer and then came to orientation only to find that they didn’t have a schedule for me. Then they told me that I wasn’t even enrolled in the school, it was very frustrating,” senior Misheel Munkhbat said.
Munkbat was accepted back into the Albany district two weeks after an investigator looked through her room to prove she lived in Albany. “Everything seemed very unorganized and I felt neglected,” she said.
At the high school, the decreased enrollment has resulted in fewer overall classes offered, less schedule flexibility and some very full classes. In fact, some previously collapsed classes, like science, math and PE were being added back into the schedule weeks after the start of school, causing additional changes.
“Last year, we had 258 sections. This year we have 248 sections. That represents a loss of 10 sections or two full time teachers,”said Principal Ted Barone.
For non-returners, or students who chose to leave after not receiving desired classes after delayed admission, friends have expressed a hope for their return.
“After so many years of going to school with Evelyn Encisco, I expect to see her walking the halls with me everyday. Now that she has moved to Berkeley, my friendship circle often times finds itself lost,” said sophomore Devo Goldschmidt.
Balancing enrollment fairness and honesty, while maintaining positive voter sentiment, not to mention funding current school operations in the face of deep state cuts is an almost impossible circumstance. Only time will tell if denying enrollment to some out-of-district students will prove to be a good long-term strategy.
