Newton School District Superintendent Tom Messinger has penned a letter to District families and staff explaining that In-District Transfers for Kindergarten through 4th graders will not be allowed at the start of the upcoming 2024 – 2025 school year. The issue was discussed at this week’s school board meeting. The result of that discussion was the board members’ decision that In-District Transfers are the responsibility of the Superintendent. In the past…Superintendent Messinger says In-District Transfers have been allowed based on criteria. Those allowances dealt with the need to balance class sizes among the four elementary schools; To keep special education students in the same school as their siblings; to place students who have significant health concerns and need in a building with a registered nurse or sibling as dictated by their health plan; and for extenuating circumstances. Currently Superintendent Messinger says there are 91 elementary students attending a school that’s different from the one they are assigned to by their place of residence. He notes these in-district transfers were requested due to location of the student’s daycare, the student being a child of a staff member working in a particular building, and continuation of attendance at the student’s original school after a move. According to Messenger, these requests were able to be granted because of the district’s declining enrollment and available classroom space. But with the School Board choosing to reduce empty seats in classrooms and transition to two elementary buildings by Fall 2026, the Superintendent says there is not an opportunity to allow students to transfer to a school that isn’t the one assigned by where they live. He sees it as a fairness issue and being respectful of all students.
Next school year, Messenger says there will be 295 elementary school students attending a different school due to construction at Aurora Heights Elementary and because of the changes in the elementary school boundaries. So all in-district transfer requests will be frozen for the 2024-2025 school year, with elementary students attending the school they are assigned to (Emerson Hough, Thomas Jefferson, or Woodrow Wilson) based on the board approved boundaries. Once enrollment for next school year is set in the Fall of this year, the Superintendent says a determination will be made if space can better be utilized by allowing any in-district transfers. He also notes students who have a sibling in a special education program at Woodrow Wilson or Emerson Hough Elementary will be allowed to attend the same attendance center. He also says the District will establish shuttles between the elementary school buildings…if needed…to transport students to the schools assigned by their residence, in cases of daycare and where parents work in a different school than their child attends.
Superintendent Messinger says he realizes not allowing In-District Transfers is not going to please everyone. But he added the entire transition to fewer elementary school buildings is one that everyone knew was going to have some inconveniences.