Out-of-District Tuition Plan Shelved

The School Committee shelved on Thursday night its idea to offer a Barrington education to out-of-district students for a tuition fee – referred to as a “tuition-in” program. With that "shelving" goes almost $127,000 in new revenue.

“I’m not prepared to spend one dime of taxpayer money to defend a lawsuit against a program that was still a work in progress,” said an obviously agitated School Committee Chairman Patrick Guida after the meeting.

Guida was referring to the threat of a lawsuit from the RI chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which sent two separate letters to Superintendent Robert McIntyre over the past week or so indicating it would fight the district in court if it attempted to start a tuition-in program.

“I thought we were doing a good thing for students and the community,” said Guida. “Now nobody will be served with a Barrington education.”

The main point of contention was Barrington’s plan only to accept 10 students for which the district was guaranteed to at least break even through tuition, meaning it would have charged special-education students far more.

Barrington was going to charge $12,800 – its per pupil expenditure – for out-of-district students, but at least $58,000 for out-of-district special-education students -- whose costs actually can run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Guida did admit that the ACLU made some valid points about the tuition-in program violating federal law with different tuition rates. But he was definitely perturbed that the ACLU threatened the district without first seeing a finished product.

“My sense now is I don’t see how we can offer the program with a bifurcated tuition," said Guida. “The ACLU says that we’re obligated to offer an education to special-education students for the same cost as other students. So, that would be a considerable cost to taxpayers and produce a substantial deficit."

School Committee member Chris Ramsden said: “I agree with your logic.”

School Committee member Kate Brody said she was prepared to terminate the program altogether, not put it on the shelf.

School Committee Vice Chairman Scott Fuller was just as perturbed with the ACLU as Guida.

“I am not enamored that the ACLU makes policy for us,” he said. “I think we put it on the shelf and down the road take a look at it again with a legal counsel. It was a broad idea and it still is one worth pursuing if we can make it legal and fair to all kids.”

McIntyre has said "I was just trying to raise revenue" with the proposal.

The tuition-in program was shelved with a unanimous 5-0 vote. The vote, therefore, created a $126,820 hole in the budget for next year. Tuition-in was to have provided that amount of new revenue.

The School Committee asked the administration to come back by June 19 with some alternatives for filling that hole while at the same time looking at how best to use the additional $144,000 put back into the budget by voters at Wednesday night’s Financial Town Meeting.

Voters put that $144,000 back in the budget to try to save wood shop at the middle school. That, too, remains a work in progress.