As the new school year approaches, some students who live in Amite County and had previously received approval to transfer to North Pike are unsure if they’ll get to keep doing that.
North Pike school board trustees told families who live out of district that they needed to get a “general release” from the Amite County school board in order to continue attending North Pike for the 2015-16 school year, which begins Aug. 6 for both schools.
Amite County’s school board had previously granted the transfers based on the 30-mile rule, which states if a student lives at least 30 miles away from the school of their residence that they can transfer to go to a closer one.
However, North Pike trustees noted that some of the Amite County students who attended far-flung North Pike Middle School actually live closer to other schools in McComb. They say a transfer request under the 30-mile rule would make little sense, since they would be requesting to send students to a school that was actually further away than another.
Amite County school board trustees in a special meeting Tuesday discussed releasing students to North Pike, but that conversation yielded few results.
Amite County Superintendent Scotty Whittington said until this issue came up he had never heard of a “general release,” as requested by North Pike.
“There is no such thing as a general release,” he said. “If we go to saying we’ll give you a general release then everybody in the county will go somewhere else.”
North Pike Superintendent Dennis Penton said the form is more commonly known as a discretionary release.
“No matter what anyone says, there is a general release,” he said. “The term general release is a misnomer, some people call it a discretionary release, but the code for the law is 37.15.31.”
State law says students may transfer and attend school out of their home district, so long as there is a mutual agreement between the school boards.
“When one district releases a child it doesn’t have to be for any specific reason, or it can be, but it doesn’t speak to that in the law,” Penton said. “The other district can accept the children under that statute.”
Whittington said the whole situation is confusing for everyone involved.
“Here we had a mess because parents asked for a release for the 30-mile rule and we signed it,” he said. “We don’t offer general releases. If we offered general releases it might open up for everyone to leave.”
Whittington said it’s a catch-22 for school officials and parents since students have already been released from Amite County but not accepted to North Pike or McComb schools.
“We don’t know what’s going to come out of all this,” he said.
Whittington said after speaking with North Pike school board attorney Jim Keith, he understands the 30-mile rule is based on transfering children to the school district closest to them.
In the case of some students, that could mean North Pike elementary or high schools. But for junior high students who had been attending North Pike, the McComb School District’s Denman Junior High and Higgins middle schools may actually be closer.
But determining that distance is even confusing.
North Pike trustees said earlier this month that the distance must be based from the student’s home address to the school he or she would attend.
