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Board adopts limited school-choice rules and reduces some class-size ratios; lottery process outlined
Summary
The board approved revisions to class-size policy and a limited intra-district school-choice policy; administration outlined a data-driven lottery with buffer seats, sibling priority, and parent-responsible transportation for any transfers.
Fort Mill School District trustees voted to adopt policy changes that revise class-size targets and establish a limited, data-driven intra-district school-choice lottery.
Under the adopted changes, district policy will keep the kindergarten-through-grade-3 ratio at 21:1, reduce grades 4–8 to a 23:1 target and reduce grades 9–12 to 25:1. Dr. Dixon, who led the presentation, explained the ratios are average, aspirational targets based on average daily membership and core-teacher counts.
The board also approved a school-choice policy (limited intra-district transfers) that will run an initial in-district lottery before opening seats to non-resident applicants should that occur in the future. Dr. Dixon described the lottery process in detail: families will apply online for specific schools during a published window, each student is entered individually (equal individual odds), sibling priority is checked if a drawn student lists siblings, and a proactive "sibling reconciliation" step can be used to place siblings together if capacity permits.
Administrators said seat allocations are driven by classroom capacity calculations that start from core-teacher counts and the adopted ratios, subtract current enrollment and then apply a data-derived buffer based on prior-year late enrollments; the district reported 295 available lottery seats in the initial plan (140 elementary, 155 middle).
Practical implementation points: The policy places transportation responsibility on parents for transfer students to keep the pilot cost neutral, and administrators said programmatic needs (special education, GT self-contained classes) are considered during seat allocations. The board discussed staffing and software options for management of the lottery; Dr. Dixon said the district may adopt third-party application software if needed.
Why it matters: The policy gives resident families a prioritized opportunity to request transfers before non-resident access and formalizes a repeatable, transparent process the district can use as statewide inter-district transfer rules change.
Next steps: If the policy remains in effect, staff will open the registration window and conduct the lottery according to the published timeline, then report allocations and any operational issues to the board.
