By Dave Stafford, Herald Bulletin Staff Writer
dave.stafford @heraldbulletin.com
ANDERSON - The superintendent of Frankton-Lapel Community Schools said Monday that no buses from the system are being sent into the Anderson Community Schools district to pick up transfer students.
Bobby Fields said that comments from ACS Superintendent Mikella Lowe in Sunday's The Herald Bulletin left the wrong impression. "Lapel is actually driving a bus into our district and picking kids up," Lowe said in the story.
"We don't do that," Fields said.
Lowe said Fields contacted her on Monday. Aside from one Lapel student - a special needs senior who just weeks back moved about one block into the ACS system - buses have not gone inside Anderson's boundaries to pick up and drop off students, Fields said.
While Fields said Frankton-Lapel has not gone out of its way to collect students who live in the ACS district, that is not to say that Frankton-Lapel buses aren't transporting transfer students.
Part of the dividing line between ACS and Lapel is Layton Road. ACS transfer students who show up at bus stops there or elsewhere can ride the bus, Fields said.
"We haven't changed our policy," Fields said. "It's been that way for years."
But what has changed is the law regarding transfer students. Parents now can choose to send their children out of district at no cost, so long as they can provide transportation.
Scores of students have transferred from Anderson Community Schools to Frankton-Lapel. For each student transfer, about $6,000 in state education funding follows the child from their old school to their new one.
Last year, Frankton-Lapel received 187 transfer students, probably three-quarters of which were from ACS, Fields said. That equates to some $800,000 in state funding that migrated from ACS to Frankton-Lapel. Dozens more students are expected to transfer next year.
"It's just happening for some reason," Fields said. "We're not going out and recruiting anyone to come in."
Regarding students from ACS riding another system's buses, Fields put it this way: "If they're going to Frankton-Lapel, isn't that common decency to let them ride the bus if they show up at the stop?"
Lowe said the intent of lawmakers was clear - they wanted to provide school choice. What's less clear, she said, is how the children get to their parents' chosen school.
"Choice is not necessarily for everyone," she said. "It's for those who can manage to provide transportation - to the bus stop or to and from school."