The troubled Normandy and Riverview Gardens school districts could have to pay a collective $23 million in tuition and transportation costs for exiting students, according to estimates released Thursday.
As administrators in both districts grapple with those projections, they’re also trying to prepare for the thousands of children expected to return to their schools next month.
Almost 1,700 students in both unaccredited school systems have applied to enroll in better public schools under a recent Missouri Supreme Court ruling. Their home districts must cover tuition, as well as transportation to at least one school system.
The exodus represents 16 percent of the student populations in both districts, meaning the vast majority of students are expected to remain in their schools. But millions of dollars that would have paid teachers and bought books or technology to improve their classrooms will follow the students who are leaving.
For Riverview Gardens, the estimated $12.9 million tuition and transportation bill comes close to the amount budgeted last year to operate Riverview Gardens High School and the district’s two middle schools, Central and Westview.
For Normandy, the estimated $10 million tuition and transportation tab is equivalent to 151 average teachers salaries — half of the district’s certified teaching staff.
The financial loss comes as new superintendents in both districts arrive with ideas on how to reverse years of academic failure. They now must devote time and energy to convince parents to simply stay.
The potential financial impact exposes the biggest challenge in complying with the school transfer statute. Some are hopeful that the added pressure will force Normandy and Riverview Gardens schools to get better. Others are pessimistic that the high cost of transferring students will do anything more than further debilitate the struggling districts.
“School choice works for kids that move,” said Don Senti, executive director of Cooperating School Districts of Greater St. Louis, an umbrella organization coordinating the transfer process. “It doesn’t work for kids that stay behind.”
Keena Fredrick considered this conundrum before filling out forms in Normandy this month to transfer her freshman son to McCluer High School in the Ferguson-Florissant district. She graduated from Normandy High School in 1997 and worries that the millions of dollars lost to the district will make it more difficult to turn around. But she wasn’t about to leave her son there for the sake of the system, she added.
“I’m concerned about my son getting a good education,” Fredrick said. “Taking money out of the school system we live in is a concern as well. But that’s something they did to themselves.”
In 2012, attorneys representing Clayton and St. Louis schools argued that it would be impossible to comply with a statute that allows children living in unaccredited school districts to attend better schools in the same or adjoining county, with the failing system covering the tab. St. Louis County Circuit Court Judge David Lee Vincent III agreed. But the state’s high court reversed Vincent’s decision in June, ruling that no such scenario had presented itself.
St. Louis Public Schools became provisionally accredited last fall, so city children are no longer eligible to transfer under the statute.
To estimate the financial impact of the impending transfers, staff at Cooperating School Districts used an average tuition price of $12,000, and $3,000 in transportation costs for those who take buses paid for by Normandy and Riverview Gardens. Normandy will pay for buses to Francis Howell in St. Charles County. Riverview Gardens will pay to transport students to Mehlville in south St. Louis County. Riverview officials plan to choose a second district because of a lack of space in Mehlville schools. Students who transfer to other districts would have to get there on their own.
Tuition for nonresident students at area school districts ranges widely. It is calculated based on a statutory formula that accounts for such things as operating costs and debt service. Tuition in Ritenour is $9,401, whereas Clayton charges $19,861.
In Riverview Gardens, 945 students have applied to transfer, according to numbers released Thursday by Cooperating School Districts. Most of those students — 475 of them — have listed Mehlville schools as their first choice. Ferguson-Florissant, Hazelwood and Clayton follow among the top choices.
The district’s $53.1 million budget includes a reserve fund of $32 million, which will help Riverview Gardens schools stay afloat for about two years, as long as tuition and transportation costs don’t significantly increase.
In Normandy, 752 students have applied to transfer. Of those, 325 have applied for spots in Francis Howell. Ritenour, Clayton and University City follow in popularity. The estimated cost as of Thursday was nearly $10 million, or about 20 percent of the district’s $50.1 million operating budget. The district had $7.9 million in reserve as of April 30.
Superintendents from neither Normandy nor Riverview Gardens were available for an interview Thursday.
In an email, Riverview Gardens Superintendent Scott Spurgeon commented on the potential financial impact:
“Some would see the work to be accomplished in our district as a challenge, but I see this as an opportunity to restore academic honor to all of our schools and regain accreditation,” he wrote.
Senti said both districts are going to be financially stressed. “In order to pay for the 1,600 kids who are leaving, they’ll need to pay $21 million to move them and still figure out how to provide an education for the 8,500 kids who are left. It’s going to be really difficult.”
The deadline for transfer applications is Aug. 1.
