Liberty Union High School District Superintendent Eric Volta called rumors that the District has agreed to bus in students in exchange for funding “complete balderdash”.
After the April 8 Board Meeting, social media had parents claiming the district agreed to bus in kids from other areas such as Richmond and use the funds to help build two additional high schools.
According to Volta, the District, along with every other district, annually reviews its inter-district transfer policy whereby, under certain criteria, students from other districts may to be released from their district of residence and may be accepted by the district of choice.
“In our District, we allow inter-district transfers into our district if they are a continuing student. If there is a confirmed safety issue at their district of residence or if a family can prove they are moving into are attendance area but the sale has not been completed,” explained Volta.
Volta further said the approval process is more restrictive for incoming 9th graders who are allowed transfers into the LUHSD if:
- They have a sibling in our District.
- Their parent works for our District.
- Or they have been a long-time (defined as since 5th grade) student in the elementary system that feeds into our high schools.
“We previously approved any incoming ninth grader that enrolled from the middle schools in our attendance area as opposed to since 5th grade,” said Volta. “We previously approved those incoming ninth graders that reside in the Antioch Unified portion of Oakley as opposed to just those that have attended Oakley schools since 5th grade”
While the District may approve the transfers, he noted there are precautions where they can revoke transfers as well. According to the policy, a student may have their status revoked for the following:
- (a) Excessive truancy or tardiness.
- (b) Excessive disruption of the educational program.
- (c) Disciplinary action including suspension or expulsion.
- (d) A grade point average of less than 2.0 on a 4.0 scale in any areas of the curriculum or in any classes for a semester/term (typically 18 weeks).
- (e) Falsification or intentional omission of material information on the student’s transfer application or with any part of the student’s personal information,
- (f) For any other valid reason supporting the best interests of the District or students.
He also noted that Antioch currently is not releasing students for transfer while Antioch has never “bussed” students in.
“All sites require all incoming students to provide proof of residency, outlined by state statute, even if they are coming from a feeder middle school,” explained Volta. “We have done many home visits this year and have dis-enrolled students whose parents who were dishonest about their residency.”
According to Volta, under the criteria used by the Board, they have approved 4 new students into the District and denied 56 at the last Board Meeting.
Currently, of the 8,000 students within the District, around 240 students are inter-district transfers with most of them being Oakley residents being allowed to attend Freedom High School because of an old policy.
Here is a copy of the current policy which can be found online which was approved April 8, 2015.
2 comments
This busing rumor starts every year in Antioch. In fact I don’t think it has stopped in the last 25 to 30 years. There is not a fact basis for these rumors just people wanting to sound important.
The rumor is low hanging fruit… easy to blame out of towners instead of facing the problems head on. Instead, it keeps getting deflected.
Comments are closed.