USD 383 will not accept new students from outside the district next school year, though this won’t affect out-of-district students already enrolled in Manhattan-Ogden schools provided they’re in good standing.
The school board on Wednesday unanimously approved a motion to declare it had zero open spots for students who live outside the district for the 2024-25 academic year in accord with a new state law.
According to the legislation passed in 2022, students may attend school in any district regardless of where they live, although a school board may determine if they have extra spots available.
The deadline for announcing how many transfers a district will accept is May 1.
Superintendent Eric Reid clarified that as long as out-of-district students who are currently enrolled in USD 383 schools remain in good standing with their academic performance, the decision not to accept out-of-district students next year will not affect them.
“That does not include new siblings coming in,” Reid said. “New siblings were not attached to that. That was one of those things that makes this pretty difficult.”
Board member Karla Hagemeister mentioned that USD 320 Rock Creek also decided not to accept out-of-district students next year for capacity reasons.
“I’m curious, at the end of the day, how many districts made the same decision,” Hagemeister said.
Assistant superintendent Nathan Downs said the Manhattan-Ogden school district already has many in-district students, though he expects smaller districts in the area will “open the floodgates.”
“We’re growing every year,” Downs said. “We have to be more risk-aversive whenever we’re looking at potential openings, especially because if those students were permitted, and we had students that actually lived within those boundaries, we’d actually have to force-transfer our in-district students.”
District uses grant to reach military families
Executive director of teaching and learning Andrea Tiede on Wednesday told the school board that the district saw a consistent number of military families this year in comparison to last year.
She said Sandra Johnson, the district’s liaison officer for military families, has played an instrumental role in organizing activities connecting schools and Fort Riley thanks to the Department of Defense Education Activity grant.
“April is the month of the military child, so we can focus on a strong partnership with our community neighbors,” Tiede said.
Tiede said the district is in the final year of its previous DoDEA grant, and she is in the process of planning a new one.
She said the current grant focused on adding a career and technical education pathway and a couple of staff positions, but with the next grant, the district wants to focus on funding summer STEM programs.
According to Tiede, one of the goals is to increase STEM education for 4th and 5th graders. One means of increasing scientific knowledge in students is through the summer STEM program.
Another goal is to focus more on CTE while continuing to work with K-State.
“We’re still going to have a partnership with K-State because that is critical to our success, and the students get to benefit from that as well,” Tiede said. “We’re increasing our exposure to CTE pathways. We’re hosting it at the high school. Mr. Dorst is so excited to have little people in his building.”
Because the school gets the DoDEA grant through its military affiliation, the children of military families take first priority for the summer programs.
“We’re prioritizing our military families through enrollment and making sure they have the opportunity so there’s no charge for their enrollment,” Tiede said. “We want to increase the numbers. We had 12 military-connected students last year, and I have to check, but we’re higher than that right now.”
Nine schools to participate in summer reading program
Nine school libraries in the Manhattan-Ogden school district will participate in the summer reading program this year.
Board president Jayme Morris-Hardeman said students will have the opportunity to get free books through the program.
“If you get the chance to visit a library this summer, that’s kind of fun,” Morris-Hardeman said. “If kids read enough, they can get free books that are being provided by the Kirmser Foundation.”
This is the 12th year USD 383 has hosted a summer reading program.
Most Popular
Comments / 0