ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, March 29, 1997 TAG: 9703310049
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER THE ROANOKE TIMES
A residents' panel says the county should begin charging the full local cost; the board fears both the existing low tuition and the state funding of
Vickie Reed lives on Arbutus Avenue in Southeast Roanoke, but her three children go to Mount Pleasant Elementary School in Roanoke County.
Reed chose to send the children to Mount Pleasant because she wanted them to attend a small school. She would have enrolled them in Garden City Elementary, which is in Southeast Roanoke, if that option had been open. But she said they were denied admission there because they live in the attendance zone for Wasena Elementary in Southwest Roanoke.
Reed pays the county $700 per year in tuition: $100 for each of the two older children and $500 for a kindergartner who began school this year.
If a residents' study committee in the county gets its way, she would pay almost $3,200 a year in tuition - for each child.
The county should begin charging nonresident students the full local cost for attending county schools, said the panel, which has recommended that the county spend $120 million on school improvements during the next decade.
The committee said the county is subsidizing the education of nonresident students. These students also contribute to the overcrowding in some schools, the panel said.
The county's per-pupil cost for schools is about $5,800 a year, with $2,600 coming from the state and $3,200 from the county.
Nearly 650 students from nearby localities attend Roanoke County schools - almost 5 percent of the enrollment. The county receives state funds for each nonresident student.
Some school officials think many nonresident students would withdraw if the tuition were raised to cover all local costs, costing the county both the tuition and $2,600 per student in state funds.
Reed said she would have to take her children out of Mount Pleasant if the tuition were raised. She said she couldn't afford to pay more than $9,000 to send them to county schools.
"If I could pay that much, I would send them to private school," Reed told the School Board this week. "I ask you not to do it because it would uproot my children and be to their detriment educationally, emotionally and socially."
If all nonresident students withdrew, the county could lose $1.7 million a year in state funds.
Superintendent Deanna Gordon said it would require the elimination of 37 teaching positions, and working that out would be difficult because the nonresident students are distributed among dozens of classes and schools.
The county's policy has been to admit nonresidents only in schools and classes with space without having to create more classes or hire more teachers. School administrators said this approach has been financially beneficial to the county because it has received $2,600 in state funds for each student and no additional personnel or expenses have been required.
But the residents' panel views the issue differently; it says nonresident students contribute to overcrowding in middle and high schools, although there might be space for them in elementary schools when they first enroll in the county.
"You've got to look at what it's going to cost you six or seven years later when you need extra space in high schools," said John Lyden, a committee member.
"Roanoke County has no business subsidizing surrounding localities," said Jeff White, another panel member.
The committee recommended that county school officials contact surrounding localities to see if they would help pay the local cost of students from their jurisdictions.
"You need to open a dialogue with these localities and negotiate a reasonable price," White said.
But John Kent, Bedford County superintendent, and Leonard Gereau, Franklin County superintendent, said they aren't interested in paying part of the cost for students from their localities to attend Roanoke County schools. The largest group of nonresidents comes from Bedford County and attends schools in the Vinton area.
Roanoke permits students from surrounding localities to attend its magnet schools without paying tuition. Some students from Roanoke County attend Roanoke schools.
If the county charges the full local cost for nonresidents, it could create problems in the Roanoke Valley. The school systems informally agreed more than a decade ago to eliminate high tuition charges for nonresident students, said School Board member Jerry Canada.
Garland Kidd, director of vocational education for Roanoke County schools, said the county could undermine regional cooperation by charging a high tuition.
School Board Chairman Michael Stovall thinks the tuition should be raised to help pay for textbooks for nonresident students and keep pupil-teacher ratios low. But the issue is whether the county should charge the full local costs, he said.
At Stovall's urging, the board last summer imposed a $500 tuition for all new nonresidents beginning this school year. Stovall said some county taxpayers have complained that it was unfair for nonresidents to attend county schools without paying county taxes. But out-of-county students who had enrolled prior to this year were allowed to keep paying the $100 tuition. Before the residents' committee made its recommendation last week, Stovall proposed doubling the $100 tuition for these nonresidents. But he has held off on asking the board to take action on his proposal pending a decision on the larger issue.
Canada said the board might want to set a ceiling on tuition for nonresidents and increase it gradually over several years. "That would give people time to decide what they want to do and whether to keep their children in county schools," he said.
Stovall said the board needs to make a decision within the next 30 to 60 days so parents of nonresident students can decide whether to send their children to county schools next year.
LENGTH: Long : 107 linesby CNB