Published: February 19, 2009 08:21 am      

School transfer letters sent

Three Navarro County schools have sent out letters informing parents of their rights to transfer their children to another school with better scores.

Collins Middle School in Corsicana, Dawson High in Dawson, and Kerens were all required by the state to tell parents that the schools had failed at least once in the previous three years, and as a consequence, parents may transfer their children to another district.

The program is called the Public Education Grant, or PEG, and it allows kids to transfer into schools with better results.

Statewide, 612 campuses were required to send out the letters, said DeEtta Culbertson, spokeswoman for the Texas Education Agency.

In recent years, the Texas legislature has offered incentives to schools that do accept the transfers, Culbertson explained.

“A district that accepts a PEG student gets regular state funding, plus 10 percent,” she said. “When the program first came out it was just so a student could transfer. After one or two years, the legislature came back and added the extra funding, the extra 10 percent weight.”

Most schools in Navarro County not on the list will accept students because of PEG, but parents don’t usually make the change because then the parents become responsible for transportation to the new schools.

Schools don’t have to accept the new students, but they can’t discriminate just because a student is a PEG student,

“They can restrict transfers on a first-come, first-served basis,” Culbertson said. “They can’t say ‘you’re a PEG student, and that’s the only reason we’re not taking you.’”

School districts that didn’t have to send out the letters say it’s not a question of a student coming from a PEG school. The concerns of school administrators are what is the student like, and how will it affect class sizes.

Mildred, Rice, Frost and Blooming Grove, with schools rated acceptable and recognized, would be destination school districts under the PEG system.

“We have not had any (PEG transfer requests) in the last couple of years, but quite a few years ago we had several requests,” explained Becky Burns, assistant superintendent in Mildred. “But it was before the building projects and we were unable to consider them. We’ve not had any in the most recent years.”

Mildred just moved into a new elementary school, freeing up classroom space in the middle and high schools, as well.

The issues to consider include the student, the student’s family, available space, and how large the class is likely to be, Burns said.

“There are times when you know there’s a (large class) coming, and you know it’s going to happen, so you don’t accept transfers,” she said.

Frost has had a consistently good record with the state ratings system, and after a troublesome budget cycle could use the extra money, but it’s not something they’re expecting in that district, said Superintendent Jim Revill.

“We’ve never been approached by anybody to accept them,” Revill said. “Our location makes it difficult for us to be an option for those kids,” he said, adding that if a student did want to transfer, Frost would be receptive to it.

“If the parents were concerned enough about academics and wanted to move them, those would be the kids you’d want anyway,” he said. “With caring parents.”

The extra money isn’t the biggest factor in deciding a transfer, administrators said. Districts look at a student’s discipline history, attendance history and similar factors before admitting a student.

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