Policy committee advances draft tuition policy for out-of-district students

The policy committee of the Upper Adams School District advanced Policy 607, a proposed new rule setting tuition for students who live outside the district, to first reading after staff described the draft and board members requested clarifying edits.

Chair Mr. Lustig introduced the item and asked Dr. DeChong to speak to its purpose; Dr. DeChong confirmed the district currently has no out-of-district students but said having a policy is standard. Mr. Citrone, the district’s interim board secretary in the business office, gave the current reference figures: "So upper out of school district elementary tuition rate is $14,231, and our secondary tuition rate is $15,146 as of last school year." Committee members pressed for clearer language on punctuation and phrasing, agreed to add "and/or designee" to the delegation-of-responsibility line so the business administrator can delegate duties, and asked staff to spell out whether partial-month attendance would be prorated.

On prorating, Dr. DeChong said the district would prorate tuition for months after a student joins midyear: "coming in the middle of the year, they'd be prorated for, you know, the months moving forward." The committee also confirmed the district will not provide transportation for out-of-district students, a point Dr. DeChong repeated when asked. With those clarifications, members consented to move Policy 607 to first reading and asked staff to tidy language around overdue payments and the one-week/one-month phrasing currently in the draft.

Next steps: staff will revise the draft to add the designee language, clarify prorating and overdue-payment consequences, and return the policy for the board’s first reading.