Bristol Tennessee City Schools Board of Education member Derek Linkous, chairman; Nelson Pyle, Jill Harrison, Jim Butcher, secretary, and Eric Cuddy, vice chairman.
Bristol Tennessee City Schools Board of Education member Derek Linkous, chairman; Nelson Pyle, Jill Harrison, Jim Butcher, secretary, and Eric Cuddy, vice chairman.
BRISTOL, Tenn. — Sullivan County and other Tennessee residents will receive free tuition at Fairmount Elementary School of Bristol Tennessee City Schools (BTCS), the city school board has decided.
The Board of Education voted 5-0 on June 20 to make the change as a pilot program of sorts, which staff recommended, for the 2022-23 school year.
The change could give an incentive to existing tuition students to move to a single tuition-free elementary school and also draw new tuition students to the school system, officials there said.
The board approved a motion by Jim Butcher to offer the option only at Fairmount rather than at Fairmount, Holston View and Anderson elementary schools, as originally proposed.
“I was looking at some policies in other districts,” said Kristie Coleman, supervisor of student services for BTCS. “If you want to build your schools, if you have extra space in the school, that’s an opportunity for people who work in Bristol” but live elsewhere in Tennessee.
Coleman, along with board member Nelson Pyle, a former Tennessee High School principal, said Fairmount is the newest elementary school and the one with the most available capacity among the five schools, with Holston View (where she was once principal) and Anderson also having some room.
“These are the three schools that have the lowest numbers,” Pyle said.
He also said one idea is to attract tuition students from more crowded schools to Fairmount, which he said has a capacity of 600 but less than 400 in the building.
In contrast, Pyle and Coleman said that Avoca was in an area seeing growth and Haynesfield was between Avoca and the other three schools in growth.
“Avoca is like a vacuum and just sucked it (enrollment) up, as is Haynesfield,” Pyle said. He said it remains to be seen if the change could stall or eliminate the need for redistricting.
Sullivan County Schools and area county school systems do not charge tuition for Tennessee residents, although Kingsport City Schools and most city school systems in the region do charge tuition for out-of-city students.
Coleman said the opportunity will come at a good time as “a lot of people are transitioning back to public schools” after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Pyle said, “We’ll evaluate on an annual basis.”
Even in other Bristol schools, if space is available, Coleman said tuition is reasonable. For instance, Sullivan County residents outside the city limits have tuition of $700 a year and Washington County $900, with deductions of $50 for each additional student from the same family.
That means, for instance, that for tuition students from Sullivan, one student is $700, two is $1,350 and three is $1,950.
“It’s a great way to grow some enrollment in places we have space to do so,” Coleman said. “If we have space, bring them in.”
Bristol board members are Chairman Derek Linkous, Vice Chairman Eddie Cuddy, Secretary Butcher, Pyle, a former chairman, and Jill Harrison.
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