Open Enrollment Leads To Questions About Student Numbers For The 2024-25 School Year
 | Author:
Linda Kent, MT43 News Staff Reporter
MT43 News Correspondent |
Open Enrollment Leads to Questions About Student Numbers for the 2024-25 School Year
Linda Kent
MT43 News Staff Reporter
Changes brought about by the passage of House Bill 203, which went into effect July 1, as well as on-going concerns about the capacity of Townsend’s school buildings to meet the county’s continued growth highlighted the July 9 Townsend School District Trustees.
“Open enrollment has been interesting,” Superintendent Susie Hedalen told the board. “The list was kind of alarming. When we ran the lists we found most students haven’t been attending here.” Twenty-two students in grades Kindergarten through 12, residing in Broadwater County were approved to attend other districts for the coming school year.
House Bill 203 allows parents to transfer their children from one district to another, within the receiving district’s criteria and enrollment deadlines, without paying tuition.
To gain better insight on where current students are residing, Hedalen told the board, school staff analyzed student home ZIP codes.
Hedalen explained that parents who live outside the district and want their students to attend need to complete the out-of-district attendance agreement available on the main page of the district’s website and return that as soon as possible.
“Now we’re reaching out to those parents to make sure they get those forms in,” she said, noting that current out-of-district parents who have not submitted forms will receive a letter explaining the new requirements for their students to attend.
“The list of out-of-district parents who have not submitted those forms", Hedalen said, “is long.”
