Wyandotte Schools Will Continue to Accept Students Who Live Outside of the District

Students who live outside of Wyandotte will continue to have the opportunity to enroll in Wyandotte schools for the 2012-13 school year.

members recently voted to keep Wyandotte as a schools-of-choice district, meaning outside students can enroll in Wyandotte schools if space is available.

Of the district’s current 3,973 enrollment, 659 students live outside of Wyandotte, meaning roughly 17 percent are choice students, board President Patrick Sutka said.

The majority of those students are children who started school in Wyandotte, but whose family moved out of the city, but still wanted to keep the children enrolled in Wyandotte schools, according to Jane Allman, the district’s director of personnel and policy.

Many districts have opened to choice students because of the money involved. When a student enrolls in Wyandotte, the child brings along the per pupil allotment from the state, meaning Wyandotte receives the funding whether the child lives in the city or not.

Some people criticize the program, saying that “problem children” are sometimes pushed off on another district, Sutka said.

"Choice has the reputation of other districts giving us their disciplinary problems,” he said. “That is not the case. … It's about money, but it's also about getting the right students."

State law allows a district to screen incoming choice students for behavioral issues, giving them the right to refuse any student who has been suspended from another district.

Trustee Michael Swiecki said Wyandotte has had success with accepting outside students in years past.

"The majority of the choice students we see are those looking for a better environment, a better educational opportunity and that’s why they're coming to us,” he said.

Being a choice district forces school officials to be competitive to some extent. And to Board Secretary Chris Calvin, that’s a good thing.

"It keeps us on our toes to be more productive and to say we want to do it better than other districts because we're not the only district that (is) taking in these other students,” he said. “So we need to be doing it better. We need to be offering better things that are going to attract these children to come to our district so that we can take them in.”

Vice President Robert Kirby is on board with being a choice district, but hopes to see some of the families opting to move to Wyandotte.

"One day, I'm hoping that instead of them coming in here just to go to school … they actually want to grow up with these kids and be part of our community,” he said. “It would be nice to see them living in town, not just going to school."