Board approves opening 175 interdistrict transfer slots for next year

The Three Rivers/Josephine County School District board approved a proposal to open 175 interdistrict transfer slots for the coming school year, the district’s enrollment manager told the board.

Why it matters: Opening transfer slots affects classroom staffing, capacity planning, and district enrollment revenue and can influence how neighboring districts gain or lose students.

Stephanie Allen Hart presented the proposal to open 175 slots: 90 at high school, 45 at middle school and 40 at elementary school. Hart said the district had opened 150 slots the prior year and filled about 97 of them.

Hart said the district balances openings with principals’ projections so classrooms are not overfilled and noted the district retains flexibility to accept hardship transfers and to grandfather students who already attend when families move across boundaries. The presenter told the board that transfer law requires the board to set a cap before the district processes transfers.

Board members asked about net gains and losses. Hart said the district has a net loss overall with neighboring Grants Pass School District (the district loses more students to Grants Pass than it gains), but it gains students from other neighboring districts such as Rogue River, Glendale and Medford.

A motion to approve the 175-slot cap passed by voice vote; the board did not record a roll-call tally in the public portion of the transcript.