Normandy school board votes against paying bill for transfers

In a 3-2 vote that puts the cash-strapped district at odds with state law, the board rejected paying the most recent costs for hundreds of students who have opted to attend school elsewhere this year.

The vote came shortly after the board approved a plan projected to save the district more than $3 million this year by closing Bel-Nor Elementary School and laying off 103 employees, most of them teachers.

The surprise vote not to pay this month’s bill for transfer costs means that about $1.3 million will not be going to 14 districts, officials said.

Last month, the district paid its first set of bills, including more than $424,000 for 449 Normandy students who transferred to Francis Howell in St. Charles County. Francis Howell is the district Normandy selected to transport students to by bus and has the largest number of Normandy transfer students.

“I’ve been wrestling with this since day one. I could no longer in good conscience support a process that would not allow us — our students — to have the kind of access to education that is afforded to other districts,” said Board President William Humphrey, who favored the withholding of the funds. “All I’ve asked for is a fair playing field for our students.”

The other board members who supported the move were Terry Artis and Sheila Williams.

The vote brought a burst of applause from about 100 people at the board meeting.

School officials said Thursday night that the tuition and transportation costs for the transfer students could take up as much as 30 percent of the district’s resources. The tuition cost for the school year has been projected to be as high as $15 million.

Enrollment figures point to a drop of about 1,000 students in Normandy this year, the first in which students to be allowed to transfer at the district’s expense.

The workers the board voted to cut are 71 teachers, 27 support staffers and five building administrators. Those cuts and the school closing are to take effect Dec. 20.

Normandy officials plan to meet with Bel-Nor parents in the school cafeteria at 1 p.m. Saturday to discuss the school’s closure and reassignment of students to other schools.

The vote on the cuts was 4-1, with Artis casting the lone no vote.

Before the vote, Artis said he had concerns about so many teacher layoffs. He said the district was “top heavy” with administrators.

“I see the teachers as being the most crucial,” he said. Board member Nancy Hartman said the district’s many problems were so severe “we really need the people (administrators) to fix the systems.”

“I’m very saddened that the district has to go through this,” Hartman said. “It’s just not right.”

Board member Henry Watts, who was appointed to the board this year to fill a vacancy, said about the cutback plan: “I don’t like it, but we have to do something. The bottom line is we have to keep Normandy solvent.”

Don Senti, executive director of Cooperating School Districts of Greater St. Louis, an umbrella organization overseeing the transfer process, said the school choice process is failing struggling schools.

“It just creates total chaos,” Senti said. “I don’t know what’s next.”

Normandy has asked the state for millions of dollars to help cover the budget gap created by the transfers.

Over the summer, the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education responded to concerns from receiving districts that Normandy or Riverview Gardens, the only other district being required to pay for transfer students, may not make tuition payments.

Department officials stated they would withhold state education funds to either district if they were more than two months behind in tuition bills. The department would use those funds to pay the bills. The agency reiterated that position in a statement Thursday night.

For this reason, “I’m not worried,” said Kate Casas, state director for the Children’s Education Alliance, a school choice advocacy group, who was at the meeting. “I don’t think families of transfer students should be worried.”

Francis Howell Chief Financial Officer Kevin Supple said, under the timeline used to pay the previous bill, Thursday’s meeting was supposed to be when Normandy would approve a check for its September payment of more than $500,000.

After the bill was rejected, Supple said he expected that the state education agency would step in. “It’s going to delay our payment … but I believe we will be made whole,” Supple said.

And because of the uncertainty regarding the financial stability of Normandy given the transfer ruling, Supple says Francis Howell has built its budget based on the assumption that it may not receive payments.

“I think we’ve been very conservative in terms of what we will see,” he said.

Gov. Jay Nixon is expected to visit with superintendents of the receiving school districts today.

Jessica Bock of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.