JEFFERSON CITY • Missouri lawmakers listened for more than five hours Tuesday as St. Louis-area school superintendents and state educators described the disruption and financial losses that have piled up as a student transfer law swung into effect this year.
They heard that the costs are unsustainable for the two unaccredited school districts who must finance tuition and transportation of about 2,200 students who ultimately transferred to higher performing schools.
They heard that busing children to schools 30 miles away from their homes is crippling fragile communities and could ultimately result in the dissolution of the Normandy and Riverview Gardens districts if either goes broke.
What the panel of lawmakers did not hear were easy solutions to an issue that has been entangled in political inaction. Without some sort of immediate fix, they were told, Normandy faces the possibility of financial insolvency in March.
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“If we do nothing, we’re going to have to assign 4,000 children to other schools,” said Missouri Education Commissioner Chris Nicastro, who is calling for $6.8 million to shore up the district.
Missouri legislators are in the initial phases of debating a change to the school transfer law upheld by the state Supreme Court in June. It allows children in unaccredited school districts to transfer to better schools at their home districts’ expense.
The issue is no longer just an urban one, said Rep. Mike Lair, R-Chillicothe. It also affects rural areas. “We may be looking at it in other places as well,” he said.
Three school districts carry unaccredited status — the third being Kansas City — meaning their academics, attendance and graduation rates are unsatisfactory. An additional 11 school systems statewide are provisionally accredited, putting them at risk of the state’s worst rating — and a transfer situation — if they slip even further.
“We have to acknowledge the children who have transferred are getting a better education,” Nicastro said. She later added, “The bad news is the transfer process has consumed a huge amount of time for sending and receiving districts, and continues to.”
For years, legislators have attempted to alter the state’s school transfer law. Those attempts failed as those who wanted to reduce its scope fought against those who wanted to expand the law to include tuition vouchers for private schools.
Many legislators had expected the courts to halt a potential transfer situation. The statute itself had been tied up in litigation since 2007. In May 2012, a St. Louis County Circuit Court judge ruled that the law would be impossible for school districts to comply with. The state’s high court overturned that ruling in June, saying districts had yet to show that compliance was impossible.
Superintendent Scott Spurgeon of Riverview Gardens said it feels like his district is “giving our money away.”
“We will change the system,” said Spurgeon, who began leading the district in July. “We just need time.”
Sen. Scott Rupp, R-Wentzville, expressed skepticism.
“Why should I believe you when we hear the same thing again and again?”
“Don’t,” Spurgeon replied. “Just watch my actions. That’s all that I ask.”
He and Normandy Superintendent Ty McNichols expressed frustration that some transfer students have never attended either of their districts’ schools. The law doesn’t require them to.
Both men say that a rise in occupancy permits within their districts over the summer indicate that several hundred students may have moved there just to transfer out. Both men want to see the law altered so that only students enrolled in their schools for a specified period of time are eligible to transfer.
McNichols told legislators about new partnerships in his district. He said university professors are providing teachers with professional feedback, while the district is working with the nonprofit group Beyond Housing to help make housing more stable for its highly transient student population.
“The more stable our community is, the more stable our schools can be,” he said.
Over the course of several hours, members of the joint committee heard arguments for reducing the amount of tuition receiving districts may charge as a means to lessen the financial burden on unaccredited school systems.
They heard concerns from some Francis Howell Superintendent Pam Sloan that transfer students needing to stay after school for tutoring or activities cannot, because they have no ride home.
She said that $30 million to $35 million is being spent to move transfer students, “while thousands remain in unaccredited schools and more districts line up with the same problems.”
And they also heard from the Kirkwood Superintendent Tom Williams and Mehlville Superintendent Eric Knost, who expressed concern that busing students to schools outside their communities could be detrimental in the long term.
In the short term, Normandy needs $6.8 million in state funds to get through the end of the year. Otherwise, the district could become insolvent, resulting in the Missouri Board of Education assigning its students to other district.
McNichols said he is working to identify what cuts he’ll make to offset the approximately $15 million his district must pay in tuition and transportation for transfer students.
Riverview Gardens has a $32 million reserve fund — enough to finance transfers this school year and at least part of next.
It was clear that additional funds for Normandy might not be an easy sell to lawmakers.
“I don’t want to keep putting money into a system that’s broken,” said Rep. Ronald Hicks, R-St. Peters.
Nicastro said the long-term solution involves fixing unaccredited school districts. It’s a task that’s much more complicated than it sounds.
“Every adult in the state of Missouri has a piece of this,” she said. “This is our responsibility. We have to figure out how to solve it.”
