Maplewood Richmond Heights voters will decide three open seats on the MRH School Board in April. Incumbents, Francis Chmelir and Maria Langston, and Katie Kaufmann and Dan O’Sullivan are running.
A 40 South News reader with a student at Maplewood Richmond Heights Elementary asked if the candidates had been asked their views on allowing transfer students into the district. MRH is facing a large influx of students from people moving here for the schools, as well as additional students transferring from unaccredited districts.
The reader said his daughter is in one of the larger classes, and is concerned that too many transfer students could be harmful. He said he thought the board could limit the number of transfers, but has taken a hands-off position.
40 South News asked the incumbents, Francis Chmelir and Maria Langston their views, and current board president, Chmelir responded for the board.
Our Board has been very active and involved in this issue. At least as it relates to what we can control. Much of this is beyond the scope of an individual district.
We recently updated and passed some policy related to the transfer issue and class size. The policy we passed is “IHB” and can be found on the District Website.
Additionally we have absorbed transfers very well so far. The attached slide shows our distribution across our schools. This process has gone very smoothly and one in which we constantly monitor. We presented this information at each one of our recent Town Hall meetings regarding facilities which we held at each school in the District over the last few months.
The transfer issue is a huge unknown and something of great importance to us as a BOE and District. We are very active as a Board as well with the Webster/Kirkwood/Maplewood legislative forum which meets every month to get the latest data on this issue. In March we are hosting the WKM forum at Maplewood so (any concerned parent and community member) is welcome to attend.
An important thing to note, separate from the transfer issue — our recent growth in numbers is really driven by children that live in the district. More of them are coming to MRH and staying from building to building. We must deal with this no matter what the outcome of the legislation on the transfer districts.
M-RH enjoys a long history, because of which it was not part of the mandatory desegregation program instituted in the 1980’s. It is good to see it successfully welcome those who wish to come here, as it is good to see the transformation it has undergone. I do hope class sizes can be managed well, and the district can meet this challenge and opportunity with the skill it has shown until now. All the best!