D/MJ board passes School Choice resolution

DEER — The Deer/Mt. Judea School District Board of Education met in regular session Monday night, Dec. 9, and among the business conducted was the presentation and passage of the
Arkansas School Choice Capacity Resolution 4.5F. This resolution establishes capacity standards for school choice applicants. The resolution is based on the provisions of policy 4.5—School Choice and applicable Arkansas law.
The Public School Choice Act, authorized by the Arkansas General Assembly in 2015, allows parents to apply for their child to attend a participating school district outside of their home district.
The district may only deny a Standard School Choice application if the District has a lack of capacity by the district having reached ninety percent (90%) of the maximum student population in a program, class, grade level, or school building authorized by the Standards or other State/Federal law.
Except for applicants who are transferring under Uniformed Service Member Dependent
School Choice, applicants, whose applications meet the provisions of policy 4.5—SCHOOL
CHOICE, will be sent a provisional acceptance notification letter which will give instructions
on the necessary steps and timelines to enroll in the District. Provisional acceptance shall be
determined prior to July 1 with a final decision to be made by August 1 based on the district's
available capacity for each academic program, class, grade level, and individual school.
Applications will not be accepted if the applications:
● Are received, electronically timestamped, or postmarked before January 1, unless the
application is from a student who is transferring under Uniformed Service Member
Dependent School Choice;
● Are received, electronically timestamped, or postmarked after May 1, unless the
application is postmarked before May 1 or is from a student who is transferring under
Uniformed Service Member Dependent School Choice;
● Are to a student's resident district that has been determined by the Division of Elementary
and Secondary Education to be exempt due to an existing desegregation order; or

● The student is transferring under Uniformed Service Member Dependent School Choice
and the application is not accompanied by relevant documentation
● The district reserves to itself the ability to determine, based on an examination of student
records obtained from the prior district, and other information, whether any student would
require a different class, course or courses, program of instruction, or special services than
originally applied for. If such an examination determines that capacity has been reached in
the appropriate class, course or program of instruction, or that additional staff would have to
be hired for the applicant, the District shall rescind the original provisional acceptance letter
and deny the Choice transfer for that student.
● The district reserves to itself the ability to decline to accept under school choice any student
whose acceptance would require the district to add additional staff, to exceed the District’s
current grade, program, or building capacity.
THEREFORE, let it be resolved that these shall constitute the School Choice openings at the
beginning of the School Choice enrollment period for the school-year 2024-2025.
Discussing the resolution with the board, Superintendent Bill Mazaur said the school district easily has capacity to accept more students although student to teacher ratios may have an impact where the district may have to hire an additional instructor or staff.
He also noted that if a student is transferring into the school district due to expulsion from the student's home district, a hearing is required.
Overall, the resolution makes it harder for a school district to say "no" to a request to transfer into a school district, Mazaur said.