NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
BUHLER, Kan. — As all school districts across Kansas will be required to do, the Buhler USD 313 Board of Education will discuss an enrollment policy at their meeting on Monday, October 9.
"Open enrollment is really referring to out of district students applying into your district to come," said USD 313 Superintendent Cindy Couchman in September. "If you live in district, no questions asked, you are automatically accepted, by law. Open enrollment is for out of district students who want to come to a school system."
Prior to this year, districts across Reno County generally accepted whoever asked, as in a decreasing overall enrollment environment for the county as a whole, there is usually space for kids.
"We take them anyway, as long as they meet our requirements," Couchman said. "I think everybody has the same ones. They have good attendance, they are on track to graduate and their behavior is good."
New legislation requires there to be a written policy on acceptance going forward, that's what the school board discussion is about.
"That policy has to be set in December," Couchman said. "Everybody's going to be having a hearing. You have to advertise it in the newspaper of your hearing and then you will adopt your policy. That policy states, what is your procedures for accepting out of district students? In January, you have to set capacity and talk about the capacity of how many students per grade level, like a student teacher ratio K-8, you could do building total capacity at the high school."
The agenda is only anticipating 15 minutes of discussion, so this is likely preliminary prior to the setting of the policy by the end of the year.
The Buhler USD 313 school board meeting is at 5 p.m. Monday at the Burkholder Administrative Center in Buhler.
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