Brewer admissions policy revised Superintendent, state official tweak proposal before Aug. 7 vote

BREWER – Policy language that would have excluded unruly students who live out of town from entering Brewer High School has been changed in a new admissions policy the school board will consider Monday.

Superintendent Daniel Lee said Friday the word “may” has replaced “will” in one paragraph of the proposed policy that, if approved, would require all nonresident students to apply for admission after Sept. 1, he said.

“Students who are currently subject to school discipline or the juvenile justice system may not be considered for admittance” is how the rewritten policy now reads.

The change came about after Lee and state Education Commissioner Susan Gendron discussed the proposed policy, which the Brewer School Committee is scheduled to vote on. Its meeting will be at 7 p.m. Monday, Aug. 7, in the high school library.

The proposed policy, which was presented to the board July 10, is a result of Lee combining two policies covering tuition students and nonresident students, adopted 22 years ago, into one new policy.

If the proposed policy is approved, nonresident students interested in entering Brewer High School would need to fill out an application, submit two years of academic, attendance and discipline records, and provide a recommendation from the principal or superintendent.

It was under Gendron’s recommendation that the policy was changed, Lee said Friday.

“There is a clear difference between petty crime and felonious behavior,” he said. “Instead, the principal will weigh this information on a case-by-case basis in addition to other input when making an admission decision.”

Another change to the first reading of the policy includes removing a sentence that would have permitted nonresident parents to enroll their children at Brewer High school without permission from their sending school district.

“The reason being if we accept a student on that basis [and] then he or she becomes eligible for special education services, Brewer may be required to bear the additional cost – not the sending district,” Lee said.

In the next decade, the school department is expecting a drop in enrollment at the high school and level funding once the state’s funding formula, known as Essential Programs and Services, is fully implemented in fiscal year 2009. That is compelling school leaders to begin planning now, the superintendent said.

The admission policy is the first step in long-range planning that eventually will cap the number of students at Brewer High School in an effort to control costs, which fluctuate yearly based on the number of sending students, Lee said.

“Bigger schools are not always better schools,” Lee said. “We look at this as an opportunity to plan ahead.”

Board member Amanda Bost asked at the July 10 meeting that a committee be created to review applications for admission. The policy now leaves that to the principal. Lee said that will be addressed in regulations for the new policy, if approved.

“The principal will make that final decision, but in actuality she’ll work with a group of teachers,” he said. “We’ll develop a regulation” if the policy is approved.

Lee said Wednesday that he wouldn’t release details of the changes until Monday, but changed his mind after informing each of the school board members individually.

The Brewer School Department’s legal counsel determined earlier this year that without exclusive contracts with communities and school districts that send students to the city, the school department legally could screen students.

When considering new policies, it’s not uncommon for them to change before adoption, Lee said.

“In fact, that is exactly why school committees use a first and second reading adoption process,” he said.