Transfers into schools a weighing of need vs desire
BRIDGEPORT — It soon could be harder to get into the most desirable schools in the district.
The city school board is set to consider a policy change aimed at tightening the rules when it comes to so- called “control transfers” of students to schools outside their neighborhood districts.
“Many times it is not a need, just a desire,” Schools Superintendent Michael Testani told members of the board’s Governance Committee, which agreed to send the proposal to the full board when it meets virtually on Tuesday.
Under the change, a student could transfer if they can demonstrate a need and if space is available. The superintendent would have the final call.
The transfer student could stay at the school through its last grade although the transfer is subject to an annual review. Siblings would no longer be able to automatically tag along with the student granted a transfer.
“What happens is students end up staying several years,” Testani said. “It impacts enrollment.”
Some schools, he added, end up overcrowded while others become under- enrolled.
Current rules call for control transfer students to be the first moved when a class becomes overcrowded.
Testani would not say how many students each year apply for and are granted controlled transfers.
“A lot,” he said.
Testani told the governance committee in September that the district office had been flooded with control transfer requests, usually to the same few schools — among them Winthrop, Johnson and Tisdale.
When parents are offered transfers instead to less crowded schools, they don’t take them, according to Testani.
This fall, awarding new transfers has been curtailed as the district deals with the reopening of school during a pandemic.
The superintendent said he looked at practices in other districts in drawing up the proposed policy change, which was last revised by the board in December 2017.
Then, as now, the plan is that any family granted a controlled transfer would have to provide their own transportation.
A demonstrable need, in Testani’s view, might be a child whose family moves when they are in the last grade of that school. He said they should be allowed to finish out the year.
Another reason might be a student who needs to be moved for a safety reason.
Board Chairman John Weldon said he would like Testani to make the final call on transfers.
“The use of this should be minimal,” Weldon added.
Board Vice Chair Hernan Illingworth, who chairs governance, called the proposed change a good idea even if some parents don’t like it.
“This is something that has been brewing in the district and has to be addressed,” said Illingworth, adding, “I understand why parents would want to request a control transfer.”
When the new Harding opened, everyone wanted to transfer there, Illingworth pointed out.
Board Member Joe Sokolovic said since the issue could be controversial, he would ask the board to hold the proposed policy change over for the standard two meetings to give the public a chance to give input, rather than rush it through with a waiving of the second read.