SPUSD must find solution with residency
The school is in a state of over-enrollment, and the gates for those eligible to attend SPHS are slowly closing. There are simply more kids than the school can accommodate. But if space is an issue, why did administration weaken their policy of checking residency documents during the 2011 enrollment process? “Faking residence” has long been an issue because SPHS has such high API scores and is largely a “college-oriented” school, but the school has removed the need to present documents such as deeds of trust, mortgage payment receipts, gas and electric bills, and bank statements at any time after initial enrollment. Such soft policies simply makes subterfuge easier.
http://liarcatchers.com/studentresidency.html
The school has not officially accepted “permit kids,” per se, for quite some time due to high enrollment numbers. Up until this year, the school was accepting students whose parents owned businesses in South Pasadena, however such students are to be barred in coming school years. Meanwhile, some students squeak by using friends’ addresses, numbers from houses they previously lived in, or by simply lying about their residency in order to assure enrollment under the newly nonexistent residency checks.
In essence, many who are actually contributing to South Pasadena as a whole can no longer utilize the school system they helped to fund, while those who in no way contribute to the system are practically being invited inside.
“The school district has not decided to reinstate the residency checks; they haven’t officially said anything about it… Faking residency has always been a problem, though,” said SPHS registrar Rebecca Quiñones.
“We trust that parents will tell us if any of the residency information has been changed. And if we find out someone has moved and not told us, the policy is very clear. Student attendance in the school is automatically terminated,” said Superintendent Joel Shapiro, clarifying the school’s policy.
The fact remains that surplus students, many of whom have no right to be attending the school in the first place, are bogging down the school system. Parents are concerned for the quality of their students’ education, and tensions mount as others seem to leech off of legitimate citizens’ financial contributions. The massive nature of the issue can be quantified quite adequately through the simple observation of one’s own friends.
“Everyone knows someone who doesn’t live here. Of course we’re not going to say anything, they’re our friends. But really, every group has someone that doesn’t live here. That’s just the way it is,” said sophomore Betty Soibel.
The over-enrollment issue needs to be addressed. This is an indisputable fact. But how should the school go about it? By barring the students of families who directly contribute to the city, or by reinstating and reinforcing residency checks to limit interdistrict kids from taking advantage of a school system they did little to create?
