Nonresident student policy eyed for Brewer High

BREWER – The Brewer School Committee is considering a new policy that would screen all nonresident students applying for admission to Brewer High School.

Superintendent Daniel Lee has combined the policies covering tuition students and nonresident students, adopted 22 years ago, forming one new policy that would require students entering the school after Sept. 1 to apply for admission.

“This policy will establish the groundwork that’s necessary to screen tuition students coming to our high school,” Lee said during Monday’s board meeting. “If we don’t have a contract with a community, it’s perfectly legal for us to screen students.”

Students who now are subject to school discipline or who are in the juvenile justice system will not be considered for admittance, the new policy reads.

“It does allow us to be somewhat selective,” Lee said.

Filling out the application is just one part of the application process, the superintendent said.

“They also have to submit the past two years of academic records and the past two years of attendance records” along with discipline records for the previous two years, Lee said.

Applying students also will need a recommendation from the principal or superintendent, which includes a statement as to “whether the student made an overall contribution or detracted from their educational environment during the previous school year,” the proposed policy reads.

Admission is contingent on the five submitted items and space availability, Lee said, adding that executive contracts with communities are the only way for outlying towns to ensure that all of their students are accepted.

“That’s the risk these communities take,” the superintendent said, adding that the school department needs tuition students. No towns now have a contract to send students to Brewer.

School board member Ruth Spellman asked whether the policy was created as an incentive to get sending communities to sign executive contracts. Lee confirmed that was one reason.

School board member Amanda Bost asked that the proposed policy, which leaves in the hands of the principal the decision whether a student is accepted or not, be amended to create an admission committee to handle applications, which Lee accepted. The new policy has an appeal procedure, with the superintendent having the final say. The proposed admission policy also has provisions for special education students that coordinate with the student’s pupil evaluation team.

The second reading of the proposed policy will be held at the Aug. 7 meeting.

During the meeting, the board also:

. Decided to end providing driver education after the current course ends.

. Accepted with regret the resignation of Brad Fox, Brewer High School principal, and the retirement of Robert Fitts of the maintenance department.

. Hired Rebecca Bubar as interim high school principal for one year; Janet McIntosh as Washington Street School principal; Deanna Bryant as a half-time first-grade teacher at Washington Street School; Rebecca Peterson and Meredith O’Reilly as English teachers at the high school; Mark Savage, varsity boys soccer; and William Schwarts, varsity boys hockey.

. Heard that the Alternatives Choices for Teams program has been relocated to the modular buildings located at the closed Pendleton Street School.

. Accepted two new updated and stricter policies concerning attendance and truancy.

. Held a closed-door meeting to discuss negotiations for teacher contracts, which expire in August.