NCSD school board leaves in-district transfer decision to administration

Newton school board members agreed to leave the decision to either allow or prohibit in-district transfers up to district administrators. Which likely means, based on comments made by superintendent Tom Messinger, the practice will discontinue for the time being while the district focuses on its configuration.

In a lengthy prepared statement, Messinger said Newton Community School District had initially begun looking at its facility usage due to declining enrollment and inefficient operations of classrooms which were “well below capacity.” Class sizes were also inconsistent across same grade levels in different buildings.

The budget also dictated Newton schools to change course. For the past several years, Newton had approved a number of in-district transfers to allow students to attend an elementary school different from the one they are assigned to by their residency. The practice was well regarded by many teachers in the district.

“For the 2023-24 school year, there are currently 91 students attending a building as a result of an in-district transfer,” Messinger said during the April 22 school board meeting, later noting there would be 51 in-district transfer students in the 2024-25 school year following the boundary changes.

Newton schools has largely accepted in-district transfers from families seeking to have their child attend a different elementary school, and the reason for is because space was always available. From the beginning of the configuration process, in-district transfers has routinely been brought up, Messinger said.

“It has been stated there are no guarantees moving forward because space would not be as available as it is currently,” he said. “This was the whole purpose of the restructuring after all; inefficient use of space due to declining enrollment. In-district transfer requests did not have any specific reasons to be granted.”

Sometimes it was due to a location of childcare outside of the area of the school assigned to the student; other times it was due to a sibling who had been attending a specific building and whose parents wanted to have the children attend the same building. Teachers and paraeducators also requested transfers.

“There were also times when a parent requested an in-district transfer because they moved within the district and resided within the boundaries of another building but wished their student to continue going to the school in which they had started,” Messinger said.

Other instances of in-district transfers involved siblings of students who either attended Emerson Hough Elementary or Woodrow Wilson Elementary for special education purposes and the parents requested their children be allowed to attend the same building as one another.

Messinger said an in-district transfer was a perk that made things easier on many residents of the Newton school district.

For the 2024-25 school year, Newton schools is going to have an estimated 295 elementary students attending a different school than they did the year before. About 213 of which are Aurora Heights Elementary students who are going to be shifted to Emerson Hough or Thomas Jefferson Elementary for two years.

The remaining 82 students are not being located due to closing schools but because the district established new boundaries.

“This is an added stress on parents and families and staff of those students at Aurora Heights Elementary,” Messinger said. “We have acknowledged this from the very beginning and we knew the stress was going to exist and there would be some hardships in the transition. This transition period is necessary.”

The district will still likely see fluctuating enrollment, but Messinger said it is not always predictable. Messinger stressed he does not question the reasons families have requested in-district transfers, but he does not see the fairness when many students do not get a choice in their building in the configuration.

“How do we know who should be given an in-district transfer? How do we move an entire building population to a new location yet allow other students or other parents to select the school that their children will go to? There is no easy answer,” Messinger said, adding there is no easy solution to this issue.

Messinger offered the board two different decisions on how to handle in-district transfers: Either leave the decision up to administrators or up to the school board. If left up to the superintendent, Messinger said the practice would be put on pause, or frozen, during the 2024-25 school year.

“Our enrollment is going to be much tighter than what it has been, and that is exactly why we are doing what we’re doing with our buildings,” Messinger said.

All elementary students would attend the school they are assigned to based on the board-approved boundaries. When the enrollment for the 2024-25 school year is set in the fall, the district will determine if there is space for in-district transfers on a case-by-case basis.

However, students with a sibling in a special education program at Woodrow Wilson or Emerson Hough would be allowed to attend that same building.

The district will also establish shuttles between the elementary school buildings, if needed, for parents who work in a building different than the one their child attends or in situations such as the daycare center described earlier. Messinger said it is the district’s duty to provide accommodations when it can.

“I fully understand the seriousness of the situation and I also know there are some that will not like this decision if no in-district transfers get granted,” he said. “I only hope we can continue moving forward to build a stronger district in which each and every student receives the best programming possible.”