It's happening at the big schools too. There was a kid that transfered from Waterloo East to CF for football this year. There's been a couple girls transfer to Waterloo West to play basketball for Pappas in the last couple years as well.
Iowa High School BEDS count 24-25
- Thread starter qwerty
- Start date
Open enrollment is a big deal in iowa. It looks like it’s 41,000 kids which is 10% of public school enrollment and is more than the total private school enrollment in Iowa.
I once heard a co worker on the phone talking to a school admin about open enrolling because the kid didnt like their current dance/cheer coach.
The way it is set up now, if the student wants to leave by a certain date on the calendar, the district can not stop them from leaving.
Here are the dates, according to the state.
educate.iowa.gov
Here are the dates, according to the state.
Open Enrollment
Open Enrollment is the process by which a parent or guardian residing in an Iowa district may enroll their child into another Iowa school district.
Prepare to be shocked.
You are welcome to believe what you want but that doesn’t mean you are correct. School districts are required to have a process. If a district were to violate their own process and “pick and choose”, they would be sued by someone whom they denied if the school does not follow their policy. A public school cannot cherry-pick their students. There are only certain reasons why a student can deny an open enrollment application. That’s law.
Here is North Polk’s policy…
Open Enrollment - North Polk Community School District
Open Enrollment - Established in 1956, the North Polk Community School District has a rich history, serving our five communities. Over 70 years of educational excellence, now one of Iowa's fastest-growing districts with five schools and 2,280 students.
www.northpolk.org
- Jan 26, 2019
- 1,099
- 1,635
- 113
- 33
They were kind of in conference hell for awhile not really knowing what they should do, they were in the Des Moines River conference which disbanded in the mid 90s and went to the racoon River for a few years, then went to the SCC for a few years and have finally been settled in the heart of Iowa for a long time. I would have been stunned if they would have left.
On another note, I've thought for years the Little Hawkeye and the racoon River should just combine and make a big 16 team + conference, there is a ton of location overlap and very similar school sizes
Is a parent really going to sue a district because their kid did not get into that district and win? Why would any student or parent want to be in a district that they are not wanted? I have never heard of a case of this happening in the state, no matter what you think.You are welcome to believe what you want but that doesn’t mean you are correct. School districts are required to have a process. If a district were to violate their own process and “pick and choose”, they would be sued by someone whom they denied if the school does not follow their policy. A public school cannot cherry-pick their students. There are only certain reasons why a student can deny an open enrollment application. That’s law.
Here is North Polk’s policy…
Open Enrollment - North Polk Community School District
Open Enrollment - Established in 1956, the North Polk Community School District has a rich history, serving our five communities. Over 70 years of educational excellence, now one of Iowa's fastest-growing districts with five schools and 2,280 students.
Do you follow a lot of hearings at the Iowa Department of Education and/or your local district court? Apparently not. Literally the first result in a Google search is a court case around open enrollment…
Just because you have never heard of it doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen.
Schools get sued all of the time for all kinds of reasons. Some legit, others not. Every district has a law firm on retainer and carries legal insurance to cover costs.
If you think a parent will just accept a “no” when someone else hears a “yes” and walk away without fighting it, you have obviously not worked with many parents.
You left out the point that the parents lost their case, so in the end, the two children did not go to Storm Lake, but stayed where they were at.
"For the foregoing reasons state above, the decision of the Albert City-Truesdale Community School District’s Board of Directors, made on July 18, 1994, denying Appellants' open enrollment request for their daughter, Shandra to attend Storm Lake Community School District, is hereby recommended for affirmance. There are no costs of this appeal to be assigned pursuant to Iowa."
I never stated district do not get sued, I said few get sued over a student not getting into another district and then suing that district to take them.
In the scores of appeals brought to the State Board since the enactment of the Open Enrollment Law, very few have been reversed for “good cause” under the Board’s discretionary power. The State Board has refused to reverse a late application because the parent mailed the application to the wrong place, In re Casee Burgason, 7 D.o.E. App. Dec. 367 (1990); or when a building was closed and the elementary and middle school grades were realigned, In re Peter and Mike Caspers, et al., 8 D.o.E. App. Dec. 115 (1990); or even where a child experienced difficulty with peers and was recommended for a special education evaluation, In re Terry and Toni Gilkison, 10 D.o.E. App. Dec. 205 (1993).
I feel like open enrollment highjacked the thread so this will be my last post about it. My point in shared that court case was that yes, parents do sue. The fact they did not win is because the district follows a protocol that is applied fairly. If it was applied unfairly, as you suggest happens regularly, the district would lose. The fact you didn’t find evidence of decisions being overturned suggests handpicking athletes and denying others is not happening.
Again, a district has to have a process for open enrollment. If they violate that process, they would get sued and they would lose.
But you are free to continue believing whatever you want.
1994 open enrollment can not be compared to todays open enrollment. It’s like apples and oranges.
I was not the one comparing the two, I was just reading from the lawsuit that he linked. My point is that athletes are transferring to better programs and are getting in, even at districts that do not take open enrolled students.
The thing about the rules, there is allow a loop hole that allows schools to pick up a good athlete.
I know. I agree with you. I should have probably replied to him but you had the details so I replied to that. I sat in a school board meeting in 1990 when they denied every open enrollment because they felt a student needed to be better than a 2-1 ratio closer to the new school. Which is nearly impossible. Now, kids transfer almost at will.
The cat is out of the bag on open enrollment, which hurts poor performing districts in things like sports and other extra curriculars and its not stopping. Throw in private schools getting public money, and its not a great time to be a public school teacher these days.
Urbandale wants to stay the small fish in the big pond. Board voted against joining little Hawkeye.
Board was 4-3. Saw one board member on the news using the fact that they are competitive in show choir as the basis.
Seems like a mistake to me but seems like students preferred staying in the CIML. Have not heard anything about Ames.
Lol, so the board went against the wishes of parents and staff, students was a pretty equal split, but current coaches were 2-1 in favor of staying put.
Enjoy getting your asses handed to you in pretty much every sport, forever. That'll be great for the kids. Lol.
Show choir wouldn't have been effected at all. Both our daughters were in show choir and they go by size of the student body. Has nothing to do with athletic conference. Go to any show choir event around DSM and you'll see Urbandale competing directly against schools like Indianola and Norwalk as well as schools like Valley and Waukee. They're all lumped together.
I think the student vote was a little over 100 in favor of staying vs. a little over 90 in favor of leaving. Pretty much a wash IMO.
Parents were overwhelmingly in favor of leaving CIML. Current coaches were in favor of staying. Seems pretty clear who the Board wanted to please.
