Tuition fuels discussion at EBOE

Disheartened, excluded and alienated are some of the words four parents used as they individually addressed members of the Enterprise Board of Education at a standing-room-only meeting April 24.

Melissa Carter, Tia Metz, Howard Moore and Brandy Johnson each described the impact that the recent EBOE decision to charge tuition for out-of-district students would have on their respective families.

The EBOE had voted to initiate tuition for out-of-district students attending Enterprise City Schools for the next school year at a meeting April 16 at the recommendation of ECS Superintendent Greg Faught.

“Our own policies and procedures are negatively affecting our school system,” Faught said before recommending initiation of a $150 per student per year tuition for students who live outside of Enterprise City limits.

“When we inherited my father-in-law’s house we figured that was good because we were zoned for Enterprise City Schools,” Carter, a Level Plains resident, told the board. “The area we live in has been part of the Enterprise City Schools since before I came to Enterprise in 1997.

“We put just as much into the school system as anybody else does regardless of where we live. We pay for classroom materials, we pay for trips, we help with fundraisers and we volunteer in our children’s classrooms,” she added. “We’re part of this community. (Tuition) basically split the community in half. It’s like we are outcasts.

“I get that I’m not actually a part of this town, but I am a part of this community,” Carter said. “And so are my children and this isn’t right.”

Metz told the board that when she purchased her home two years ago she thought it was in Enterprise City Limits. “But through all of this I have found out that it’s not,” she said. “We don’t necessarily have the funds to pay for tuition, some of us.”

Metz said when she talked to Faught earlier he explained that the decision was prompted not only by overcrowding in the schools but also by the fact that city schools are funded by city residents.

“I understand that funds have to come in for those schools and a lot of us don’t have a problem with paying something, just not what the schedule has put out,” Metz said. “If it’s about the tax money that we don’t pay in, why can’t we give to the school system what we are not currently paying? I ran the numbers and the taxes on my property does not amount to the proposed tuition.”

“For the first time in my life I have felt alienated from something that I have always appreciated and valued for most of my growing up years,” Moore told the board. “We live on a family farm just outside of Enterprise. Half of our farm is in city limits but where we built our home, because of the roads, is on the outside of city limits.

“For 75 years we’ve been on that farm for the most part. My dad caught the school bus where I caught the school bus and where my kids catch the school bus,” Moore said. “Now suddenly for the first time we are being told, ‘You are a non-citizen. You’re not a part of our community and we might give you the privilege of being a part of our community,’” Moore said. “And it offends me, it hurts me.

“I know your task is huge but could you at least look at something more fair?” he asked. “What I think you’ve brought to us is an exclusion tax and I think it needs to be a more fair tax. If you could evaluate it, I would appreciate it and again, I know your task is great.”

“I’m very disheartened and excluded,” Johnson told the board, adding her concern that the “zoning was just changed without input from anybody that it impacted.

“We live on family land just short of Mount Pleasant and it’s been zoned for Enterprise City Schools for at least 50 years, if not longer. My mother-in-law graduated from Enterprise High School. My husband graduated from EHS, I graduated from EHS and now all of a sudden my kids are not a Wildcat anymore?” Johnson asked. “Why now? Why, all of a sudden after 50 years, are we not allowed to attend without your permission?”

Johnson said that ECS receives Impact Aid because her husband works on federal property. “Shouldn’t that affect the tuition that I have to pay? I know it doesn’t cover everything but it covers something. How did you guys come up with the rates? How did that come about?”

Individuals interested in addressing the board can access a request form at the EBOE website. Forms should be submitted to the school superintendent at least 24 hours prior to the scheduled EBOE meeting. A person will be allowed three uninterrupted minutes to make a presentation.

The next meeting of the EBOE is May 15 at 6 p.m. at the schools’ central office on Hutchinson Street in Enterprise. The meeting is open to the public.