001welcome USD 264 staff students parents patrons community members and anyone watching on YouTube uh Welcome to our ninth installment of clear water Clarity uh kind of our monthly update about things going on within the district uh and creating a strong communication process for us one thing that we're going to do this month is we're going to look at some upcoming um changes that we have um that's coming to us from our state legislature but we always want to just Center this around kind of our why uh so I really want to communicate why are we having to make some changes to our open enrollment processes uh what are those changes and then how are we going to actually make those changes uh impact USD 264 in a positive way and staying in aligned with our
002strategic plan so again in staying in alignment with our strategic plan goal number four we're wanting to provide consistent relevant communication so you're going to have this video there's also going to be a PDF that is uh is pushed out as well on social media explaining some of the differences in our open enrollment as well as a memo um that will come in an email to all parents um letting them know about the current status of all currently enrolled USD 264 students and then lastly we want to really focus on strategic plan goal number three where we want to develop those deep relationships and engagement with our community with our staff and also with our students so again I will reiterate this at the end if you have any questions about the Open Enrollment policy
003or the uh plans that USD 264 has made my contact information is at the end so please make sure uh we will know or please make sure we have the opportunity to communicate if you have some more questions so uh in uh legislative session during 2022 uh the Kansas legislature passed a law that will go into effect on July 1st called open enrollment or non-resident student status and so that's what we're going to really focus on in this month's Edition we're going to talk about what it is how it will impact USD 264 and kind of when we know uh what um what numbers we have from that process so again what is open enrollment uh State Statute um so starting in July 1 of 2024 which is coming up we're two months away from
004that uh start date they changed the law that uh requires usds or local school districts to um educate all students within their residential borders so every USD in the state of Kansas has a uh border a drawn border that uh is our boundaries every student residing in that um we must take as part of our education plan as being a unified school district what this did now is that all districts must accept non-resident students those are students not living in Clearwater boundaries where capacity exists and so part of that process is the board went through in um the spring here and looked at what those capacity numbers are and we'll talk about that in just a second as well then students that maintain a good student standing policy will be able to maintain that so
005I'm going to step back for a second to be able to go forward first we exhibited a student and good standing policy and all of this information is going to be posted on our school website starting today on May 1st when this goes live to be able to look at what our student and good stand Standing policy is as well as the outof district application and any information that will assist with non-resident students and also so those that are resident students to know it may how it may impact them so we created a student good standing policy that really focused on grades attendance Andor behavior and those are the three criteria within the law that we can after a student is accepted this from a non-resident uh status starting next year then each year we
006will annually have to start uh evaluating those students the second part of that is all students that are currently enrolled at USD 264 whether you're resident or non-resident at this point in time are grandfathered in to be a part of USD 264 until you decide to exit USD 264 or graduate so again I want to reiterate all current students that are attending USD 264 will maintain uh attending 264 next year um depending that you choose to do so one big piece to be thinking about this too is Casa eligibility their rules do not change so if they if you are a non-resident resid student applying to go to school somewhere else and you have already started your seventh grade year or your freshman year at another District you must set out 36 weeks or one
007full school year before you're eligible for Varsity competition again now if you make a Bonafide move meaning you physically move from one District to another uh then you're able to um make that Bonafide move and you are instantly eligible so again State Statute changed we created a student and good standing policy that we're able to that students that maintain that will continue going there again students that are already going to USD 264 in the 23 24 school year are grandfathered into this uh whether you're resident or non-resident at this time some of the capacity things that we've been is we've always been an open District um and so currently right now we've always accepted applications and we reviewed those applications based on grade attendance and behavior whether we would accept them or not um so
008we are going to be able to continue with some of the same philosophies we've done in the past we are just now required to accept them where we have capacity uh so we did a study on our current enrollment and the projections of that enrollment based on a um uh projection study that the city did uh in their 20-year plan where they showed a certain percentage growth of the population in Clear Water uh just in the city that also our boundaries are a little bit bigger than the city uh but then we worked with our administrative team teams and the school board to set what limits or what we think our capacity is for each grade level and we feel like at this point in time for the 2425 school year we will only have
009capacity available in kindergarten first and second grade and we set those limits at 10 seats per each one of those grades so 30 total students that we could add um to our roles and we started looking at things such as student to teacher ratio uh as to just overall class size and what we really feel like was a good number for our capacity and we fill in starting next year grades third on up all have capacity or the projected enrollment shows that they will kind of be at their Max Capacity so we set um the opportunity to accept students in kindergarten first and second grade so then as we look at when this all happens so starting today May 1st we will post that capacity uh per the state statute on our uh School website
010so there'll be a whole document showing what our current enrollment is uh what our projected enrollment is for next year and where we have capacity starting then we will post our um outof District applications so if we have non-resident students that wish to be considered for a place at USD 264 they will have to fill out an application we will accept those applications through June 30th so basically we're going to open up put our application available starting May 1st and we'll run that through June 30th if we have applications that exceed the posted capacity so we have 10 in kindergarten 10 in first first and 10 and second grade let's say in second grade we have 12 applications so we have more applications than we have capacity we must do a lottery between July 1st
011and July 15th and notify those families that were accepted and then we will start the process of each year being able to review the status of those students annually so also coming up later today and later this week current students um we are going to ask parents to start enrolling for next year at this point in time because we need to know is our projected enrollment accurate and if it's not then we can add more capacity in certain grade levels that be a little bit smaller so in conjunction with the Clear Water Clarity that's going out this month you're also going to receive some information on to start enrolling starting on May 6th through May 26th if you are a current USD 264 student and I want to reiterate again and I know I may
012be sounding like a broken record but if you are currently attending USD 26 4 and are a non-resident student you are grandfathered in to being able to attend USD 264 until you graduate um so please make sure that you're aware of of that process so finally as we kind of wrap this up I want to summarize three things this is a state law that's being required of us um to force us to do something that we've already been doing so we lose a little bit of that local control uh that we always enjoy but at the same time our administrative team and Board of Education worked very very diligently on creating a policy and a lottery plan that we felt best benefits clear water and maintaining what we feel is special here at Clearwater and
013making sure that we understand that when we're able to provide for our students is the best education possible so in doing that we always think about how can we be the one uh for someone else and that is also by setting good policy that allows us to make sure that Resident students have the best education possible and that we are able to also share that education with non-resident students where we have capacity so we are going to make sure that we follow our policy and follow the state law we're going to make sure that we uh accept students or have capacity in kindergarten first and second grade we're going to make sure that all of our current students know that they're going to be grandfathered in and allowed to attend USD 264 next year whether
014they're non-resident or not and then we're going to start working towards how we can build a greater Community for our students for our community and for our patrons so that we have this opportunity to really ensure um a longstanding um success in our strategic plan so finally I want to wrap up don't forget enrollment information will be getting pushed out through uh brigh arrow and through uh communication from the buildings starting May 6th you'll be able to start enrolling for next year you will not pay fees until next year we just need to be able to start the enrollment process so that we understand how many students are going to be returning next year and how many of our non-resident students that we currently have are going to be returning so that we can continue
015to figure our capacity as well again here's my contact information so there is my office number you can call and leave a voicemail or schedule a meeting with the front office there is my email please feel free to email me if you have more questions about Open Enrollment and how this is going to impact USD 264 I want to thank you for your time thank you for the support over this first year and we're looking forward to as we finish year one and rolling into year two uh just the opportunity for us to continue to be one team one family one District where all students will reach their full potential and be well equipped to be successful thank you and have a great day