Parents wishing to move their children to an elementary or middle school outside their regular school district have until next Friday to petition the school board for the change.
Due to House Bill 251, passed by the state legislature, citizens have the opportunity to transfer their children to any public school within the county as long as space is available and parents provide transportation.
County School Superintendent Mike Ballew last week announced which schools have openings in each grade level and how the local system will implement the new school choice law.
“This is something the legislature passed this year, and we have worked to establish our model for doing this based on the one the state established,” Ballew said. “We’ve worked with administrators and the board to come up with the number of openings at each school so parents will know if a transfer is an option for them.”
Ballew said applications would be accepted by mail if postmarked by July 14 or hand delivered to the board office by 4 p.m. on July 17th. After the application window has closed, eligible applications will be sorted by campus preference. A random drawing will then be held at the board of education office for any requests where more students have applied to a school than there are available slots.
The transfer packet states: “Transfer requests will be reviewed and approved or denied on the basis of a lottery in the event a particular school has available space and the number of transfer requests exceeds the remaining available capacity.”
Once available classroom space is filled at a school, no more transfers will be accepted at that school. Parents may indicate more than one choice on the transfer form.
Ballew said he doesn’t know what to expect in terms of how many parents may apply to transfer their child to another campus.
“We have had more calls regarding middle schools than anything else,” Ballew said.
If a student is allowed to change schools, he said, they do not have to reapply from year to year but rather will be allowed to stay until moving on to middle or high school.
“They can always pull back into their regular district if they want, but they can stay at the (new) school from then on,” he said.
Principals will notify out-of-district parents if their child was selected for assignment at their school of choice. Once selected and registered, the student must stay at the school for the entire 2009-2010 academic year.
For more information concerning HB251 go to the school’s website at www.doe.k12.ga.us. Applications may be printed from the school’s website or picked up at the board of education office on Stegall Drive.
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