CREVE COEUR • Missouri Education Commissioner Chris Nicastro told area superintendents Friday that their districts would continue to receive tuition payments for Normandy transfer students next fall — but nothing like the windfall most districts have received this year.
For more than an hour, Nicastro met in a closed meeting with 25 superintendents and district representatives, discussing the terms under which the troubled Normandy district will be operating once the state seizes control and restarts the school system on July 1.
For starters, the new Normandy district will pay no more than $7,236 a year per transfer student. This is less than all districts have been charging for transfer tuition. Rates have ranged from a high of $20,768 in Clayton to a low of $7,927 in Mehlville.
Whether school boards agree to lower the tuition rates is almost irrelevant. “This is what we will pay,” Nicastro said afterward.
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However, the unaccredited Riverview Gardens School District will continue operating under the current rules governing student transfers, which allow receiving districts to set tuition based on operating costs, debt and other factors. As a result, Riverview Gardens is expected to become insolvent by next spring and could face a fate similar to Normandy’s.
“We all know full well the transfer law is not financially sustainable for any district that has to be held accountable to the statute,” said Riverview Gardens Superintendent Scott Spurgeon by phone after the meeting.
Other superintendents declined interviews. Tuition rates for transfer students have proven to be a sticky issue for many of them. Their school boards have the final say in setting tuition rates. Some have argued that transfer students shouldn’t get an education financed by the taxpayers of other districts.
“Some will be OK with it, some will be unhappy about it,” said Don Senti, executive director of EducationPlus, referring to how school boards might receive the plan. “The challenge for all of us will be to try to explain how Normandy is being handled differently than Riverview.”
EducationPlus is a cooperative organization that supports school districts. The meeting was held at its offices.
Nicastro said she hoped districts would reduce their tuition calculations for Riverview students, though it will not be required. The state’s rate is similar to what county districts already accept as tuition for African-American students from St. Louis Public Schools under the voluntary desegregation program.
The meeting provided the first glimpse into what changes could be in store after the state takes control of Normandy, the first district to buckle under the weight of the school transfer law. Limiting tuition costs is the first step in rectifying Normandy’s nearly-drained budget.
Nicastro said the Normandy Schools Collaborative would be a brand new district with no accreditation classification. The Missouri education department requires three years of test scores, attendance numbers and other metrics before recommending an accreditation classification for any district.
And with no such classification, the new Normandy would not be required to comply with the school transfer law. If the state Board of Education agrees, the collaborative would continue financing the 765 current transfer students who applied to stay in their new schools this fall. But the 122 Normandy students who have applied as new transfers would not be allowed to leave.
This came as a disappointment to Robert Walker, a Normandy parent whose daughter will enter kindergarten. He registered her to transfer in August, and the family was already trying to adjust work schedules so they could drive her to and from Brentwood, where Walker hopes to send her to school.
“We haven’t even considered any of the schools in Normandy because we were looking forward to the transfer,” he said.
But the new Normandy will not be able to afford more transfer tuition, Nicastro said. The district will have very little capital when the state assumes control. “The financial situation of the district, as everyone knows, is very fragile,” she said.
State education officials say poor academics and not finances prompted the takeover. But the Normandy district has been headed toward bankruptcy for months. Normandy had a healthy savings account this time last year. But then a Missouri Supreme Court ruling upheld a law that allows children living in unaccredited districts to enroll in higher-performing schools at their home district’s expense. The bills associated with the 1,000 transfer students have cost the district millions of dollars. Nicastro’s plan would save the district $4.6 million.
But first, the state board must approve Nicastro’s plan. She plans to also lay out a district budget and some staffing recommendations when the board next meets June 16 and 17 in Jefferson City.
Michael Jones of St. Louis, the board’s vice president, said he met with Nicastro later on Friday and liked what he heard.
“What she’s trying to balance is something I support,” he said. “We don’t have a morally acceptable answer for a parent who wants another educational option for their child. How do you maintain that? You can’t do that at the expense of the overwhelming majority of kids who stay.”
About 3,000 children attend school in Normandy. A lawsuit filed last month by the district and six taxpayers challenges the validity of the school transfer law. It argues that it has depleted the district of resources needed to educate its students.
The suit also accuses 20 area school districts of charging more in tuition — in some cases, 10 times more — than it has cost them to educate transfer children.
The education department has said it will not authorize Normandy to finance the lawsuit. Nevertheless, the case still awaits a court date in St. Louis County Circuit Court.
The state intervention is the first of its kind, allowed under a law that took effect last July. Previously, the state Board of Education replaced elected boards with appointed ones in unaccredited districts, as was the case in St. Louis Public Schools and in Riverview Gardens. But it could not directly oversee the schools.
Jessica Bock of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report
