School board says no to open enrollment

The La Grande School District will not switch to an open enrollment policy in 2012-13.

The La Grande School Board voted Wednesday not to opt into a transfer system under which school districts must accept all students.

All Oregon school districts have the opportunity to have such a transfer system under House Bill 3681, approved by the Legislature in 2011.

Districts must decide by each March whether to choose the transfer system option offered under HB 3681 for the upcoming school year. Districts switching to open enrollment must accept all students outside of their district who want to transfer in.

La Grande School District Superintendent Larry Glaze encouraged the board to vote against switching to open enrollment.

One reason he cited is that with open enrollment, the La Grande School District could be faced with a situation in which it would have to take in students it does not have enough resources to educate.

Glaze said that the district will evaluate how open enrollment works for other school districts in the state over the next year. The La Grande School District will then look at the issue again and decide whether to have open enrollment.

“We want to take a wait and see approach,’’ Glaze said. “The current system is working well for us.’’

Under the present system, La Grande has inter-district transfer agreements with the Union and Elgin school districts. Students cannot transfer from La Grande to Union or Elgin and vice versa unless the district the student is transferring from and the one they are moving into approve. 

La Grande does not have inter-district transfer agreements with Cove, Imbler and North Powder because they are charter districts. All charter districts have open enrollment.