Tuition rates and online classes were the dominant topics at the North Platte School District meeting Nov. 20.
The board discussed what would be fair to both students out-of-district and the school district and taxpayers on tuition rates.
“Last month we talked about the tuition rate and we were supposed to check into it and find out the legalities of it and how it could work,” Superintendent Karl Matt said.
He said the legal advice that was obtained and what he would also recommend as well is that there be no stipulations on any students as far as coming from out-of-district to the North Platte School District if they are behaviorally and academically qualified.
“We wouldn’t say if they have a failing grade that they couldn’t come here, they would just follow the same student handbook as everyone else,” Matt said.
Although a lot of schools have asked about the legal ins and outs of accepting out-of-district students, the legality issues are a little murky as to what a district can and can’t do. Board members agreed that there should be concern if a student coming from out-of-district has been suspended. Matt said that, however, would be covered under the Safe School Act and if a student has been suspended the North Platte R-1 School District would honor that suspension if that student moved to Dearborn. He said re-evaluation would also be an option, but by and large, a suspension would be honored. Students would not be allowed to enroll in the school district if they have been involved in some kind of crime and that would apply to any student whether they were a resident student or one who is transferring from another district.
Board members discussed rates on how much to charge a student transfer. Matt said the Osborn school district has a low rate of about $900 per year but the rates vary widely from school to school.
State aid per student is $4,270 per year and board members agreed the cost of educating a student costs much more than the state gives the district. The state aid would not be given for a student paying tuition, so it’s important to find a tuition rate that would cover the loss of the state aid and not put more of a tax burden on the community. Staff members’ children who don’t live in the district would not have to pay tuition.
Board members agreed that $2,500 per semester would be fair to charge for tuition.
Matt said if it were only a few students per year transferring to the district it wouldn’t really be expending any more money. “If we have 187 students in the school, we’re not spending any more money than if we had a 186,” Matt said. “ But if we don’t have tuition and we had 30 kids coming from other districts, then yes, that’s going to cost a lot more money.”
The issue was tabled until the next board meeting since two members were absent.
The board voted to approve the district insurance through MUSIC. The base amount is $99,000 and the board agreed to an extra $3,092 to be insured up to $10 million in case of a catastrophic event such as a bus accident.
The board members spent the latter half of the meeting discussing an online course program, Launch Online, and the need to approve an online provider.
“We have not had one,” Matt said. “A lot of schools have begun using this program and it’s based out of the Springfield School District.”
The district will have to provide the online courses by law and will have to provide up to six courses per semester. The courses can be taken online at school or at home.
“I think some of the positives that would come out of it would be like a student who wants to study astronomy and we don’t have an astronomy class, this would be a chance to do it online,” Matt said. “It could be a way for students to just take classes at home and not have to come in at all. We have several students who do online courses for dual-credit. This would not be a dual-credit program. This would just be high school credit. I don’t know that we’ll have a lot of students that want to do that.”
If students do the online course at home and they pass the courses, the school will still get state aid, but the school would have no control over if students pass the courses. If the students fail courses the school will lose money since the students are not in a home-school environment.
“We can track what they’re doing and we can talk to them and encourage them to complete the courses like we would do for any student in school,” said Matt. “We only have to provide six courses per semester which would give students six credits per year. There’s a process that they have to apply to the administration to be approved. If we already have the class and they want to take the same online class someone could say ‘I don’t really like that teacher, it’s a hard class and I want to do it online instead.’ The legal advice that we’re getting is that we’re not allowed to say no if that’s in the best interest of the students and that’s what we have to go with.”
The students have to be approved to take the classes online but Matt said there aren’t a lot of reasons the school could give that wouldn’t allow a student to take the online courses.
The district uses Plato Credit Recovery, but since not many students are using it the board is looking at not renewing it in January. The online courses also could give opportunities to school staff. They could become partner teachers and earn extra money through the Springfield School District.
Matt said there are some other programs that have been very aggressive around the state offering online courses but they are not using certified Missouri teachers and they are not telling schools what teachers they are using. To get state aid schools must use certified teachers for all courses.
Launch Online courses were approved by the board.
State assessment results were announced and North Platte R-1 School District came out above the state average in language arts, science and math, except for eighth-grade Algebra 1.
The board will make a motion to approve the school board filing dates at the next meeting on Dec. 18.