By Torre Peña
On the heels of an areawide county study evaluating school district boundaries in Saratoga and Los Gatos, the Los GatosSaratoga Joint Union High School board of trustees is forming a committee to examine the district's policy on residency.
Board president Ron Adolphson clarified the district's current policy.
"We do not accept out-of-district students. We do not accept inter-district transfers. Any students found in the district who do not belong here are asked to leave," he said.
Adolphson added that the committee would explore the policy in general and look specifically at hardship cases.
An example of a hardship case would be the death of a parent in the middle of a school year that forces a student to move out of the district, said board member Lorrie Wernick.
"I think the committee should look at all points of view, but primarily: Do we make exceptions of any kind for hardship cases?" Adolphson said.
Saratoga High School principal Kevin Skelly said that out-of-district students attending Saratoga without permission are fairly common. Saratoga High's success as a school is one of the reasons that parents falsify addresses, he said.
"They are incredibly creative in terms of how they do it," Skelly said.
At Los Gatos High School, principal Ted Simonson said that the problem is for the most part under control, because the school pays closer attention to the issue than in the past.
Concern over out-of-district students stems from the district's economic base. As a Basic Aid district, the high schools are dependent on local taxes. A majority of California schools are funded by the Average Daily Attendance system, where the state pays a set dollar amount for each student at school. Basic Aid districts are funded through assessments on property.
"Adding more kids spreads our resources thin," Simonson said.
Considering the disenrollment of six out-of-district students from Saratoga High triggered the board's action to organize a committee to study residency. But the board's policy has remained firm in the past.
"Any student coming from out of the district does not contribute," Adolphson said. "It costs the district money."
Inundated by requests to transfer into the Los GatosSaratoga High School District, the Santa Clara County Committee on School District Organization has put a temporary hold on petitions requesting district transfers while a study of district boundaries is being conducted.
The committee on residency will comprise administrators, board members, parents and students, Adolphson said.
This article appeared in the Saratoga News, March 26, 1997.
©1997 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.