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ELMSFORD, N.Y. – Elmsford schools have given nearly two dozen students the boot this year after finding they did not live in the district, a school study shows.
Twenty-one students have been forced to transfer out of the Elmsford Union Free School District over the course of the 2011-2012 school year after an internal investigation showed they lived in places like Yonkers and White Plains, administrators said Wednesday during a board of education meeting. Another four cases are still pending.
Jeffrey Olender, director of technology and registration, said the problem with out-of-town pupils has “bubbled to the surface” in recent months, a concern because taxpayers are left footing the bill.
“If students are here and they should not be because they do not actually reside in the limits of the district, they are actually being educated through taxpayer funds paid by people who live here,” Olender said.
Many board members and parents, who were presented with the numbers for the first time Wednesday, said they were surprised.
“I was floored by the numbers,” said board of education member Debra Lawrance. “I had no idea.”
In total, 50 students have been investigated during the course of the school year after the district received questions of their residency.
While 25 either transferred or their cases are still pending, 11 were found to have lived in Elmsford and 14 were found to have special circumstances that allowed them to stay – either they were homeless or involved in a split-custody situation. Numbers from previous years were unavailable.
District investigations, however, didn’t find any particular patterns of where the students were coming from, Olender said, noting they found students who lived in White Plains, New York City, Yonkers, Tarrytown and Ossining.
Olender said he thinks the cause may be parents who once lived in the district moved out of Elmsford but left their children in the schools, not wanting to take them from their friends and classmates.
“I think parents try to keep those kids in those schools until they’re forced to switch,” he said. “It’s a natural tendency.”
On average, per pupil cost in the district’s 2011-2012 budget broke down to over $15,000 per student, statistics show. But administrators said the departed students won’t make a dent in the cost to taxpayers.
The number of departed students is small, they said, and won’t be enough to reduce staff – where any savings would come from.
But school board President Matthew Evans said it wasn’t a money issue.
“This is a matter of principle,” he said.
On Wednesday, administrators said they will begin cracking down with new policies, including mandatory re-registration in certain grades and updated residency verification forms. The board of education said it would not rule out hiring an outside firm to handle registration in an effort to close the loopholes that allowed out of district students in the school.
“We are tightening those things greatly,” Olender said.
Comments (7)
This is some of the best news i've heard to date regarding the Elmsford Schools. At $35k spending per student and less than 1000 children attending schools in the district, elmsford should provide one of the best levels of education in the County. Yet due to overcrowded & illegal apartments and out of district students we struggle to make grade.
This has to be an ongoing effort, I would argue a part time position should be created just to monitor residency issues / complaince. Although elmsford school district leaves alot to be desired, this is still a country club as compared to schools in Mt. Vernon, Yonkers and the Bronx.
I'm am a little disappointed in School Board President Evans statement that this is just about the principle and not about the benifit. 25 students in a small, troubled district is significant, for each student out of the schools that is more time staff can spend teaching district residents!
GBGHMom,
There may be great benefits; on the hand there is also the truth which is measurable.
Mr. Samis, it's a shame that you'd jump this post and use it as an opportunity to insult my school district. There are great benefits to the children who attend the schools in this district. However, if you don't see it, so be it. If you live in the district, make your voice heard on May 15th.
"Tootired- you're right, there are children attending GC7 that do not live in the district."
"in the end, the children are affected." --Greenburghmomof2
It is hard to believe that there are parents who have so little concern for their children's education that they would want to "sneak" their kids into GC7.
Or, even that there are worse school districts than Central 7 or Elmsford within commuting distance?
Tootired- you're right, there are children attending GC7 that do not live in the district. I believe the district recently hired a detective to look into this.
Either way, it directly affects the kids. I understand the different reasons parents choose to do this, but in the end, the children are affected.
.....and in the Greenburgh school district, a small army of out of district children are attending schools there. Complaints have been lodged with the district for years. At school dismissal time, waiting cars can be seen is a myriad of locations waiting for school buses to drop of kids who are whisked away over the district boarders. At $33.7 K spending per student, that adds up to an enormous amount of stolen taxpayer funds. Now, I hate to break it to Elmsford and Greenburgh, but, these thieves aren't committing theft of services because these 2 districts are so exemplary one could almost see why one might break the law to get their kid in, it's because both districts allow (allowed in Elmsford's case?) it to happen where other districts would not. These children have no legal, verified, home addresses.
Theft of services is an art form in Greenburgh whereby both the town government and the school district encourage it. Example: Bill Carter and Sonya Brown at town board meetings discussing non-residents attending TDYCC camps for free. Both were visibly horrified and protested at the recommendation to crack down and start checking for non-residents, start asking people to show proof of financial burden before allowing "scholarships" at NO CHARGE and charging non-resident fees. *video available on Greenburgh website.
Hundreds of thousands, if not millions of tax payer dollars, is used to educate, transport, feed, entertain & babysit non-residents.
Hopefully the children forced to transfer are transitioned well into their new district. We have to remember how much all of this affects the children.