Dear Friends,
In August, we welcomed a total of 42 transfer students to the Maplewood Richmond Heights School District from Normandy and Riverview Gardens. Twenty-one of these students are from the Normandy School District.
Last night, Normandy’s Board of Education met and made multiple decisions about their remaining budget for 2013-14. In addition to closing one elementary school, laying off 103 staff members, and offering early retirement incentives to 98 more, they voted to not to pay the current bill for its students who have transferred into higher performing school districts such as MRH. We have received one payment from Normandy to date, covering student tuition expenses for the month of August.
The full impact of this vote by Normandy’s Board of Education is not known. However, we do not anticipate their decision being a large financial burden on MRH at this time. The Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) has said they would withhold state education funds to either district if they were more than two months behind in tuition bills. DESE has stated they would use those funds to pay the transfer bills – a position that they again reiterated in a statement last night.
Our top priority has been, and will continue to be, to provide every student – both those who reside here and those who have transferred to MRH - a high quality education. Our community is committed to doing what is in the best interest of all our students.
I assure you that the MRH Board of Education and I will monitor the situation closely and keep you updated as we learn more.
Sincerely,
Karen I. Hall
Superintendent
For more information, contact MRH School District at (314) 644-4400.