Benefit or Hypocrisy? Some School Employees Don't Live in the District, but Their Kids Are Enrolled Here

In response to a story regarding the Laguna Beach Unified School District cracking down on 20 parents and guardians suspected of enrolling their non-district-living children in Laguna's schools, some members of the community are questioning whether or not it's any more fair for the LBUSD to allow its employees who also reside outside the city to enroll their own children in the district.

Norma Shelton, assistant  superintendent of business services, explained that as a  "basic aid" district (supported by property taxes, as opposed to state funding), the LBUSD does not receive revenue for students who reside outside of Laguna. Furthermore, those students' actual districts of residence (if they are classified as "revenue limit") are also deprived of the per-pupil state aid they would receive.

"Throughout the years, there have been a variety of reasons given by parents or guardians wishing us to make an exception," Shelton told Laguna Beach Patch. "No matter how compelling the stories, the district will continue to adhere to its policy. We will not make exceptions that could cause a possible liability issue for our district."

As some readers have pointed out—mostly homeowners whose tax dollars fund the district's schools—children of LBUSD employees are an exception to the rule.

Superintendent Sherine Smith said 19 students who live outside of Laguna Beach currently attend school here because they have a parent who is employed by the district, which, she argues, is a benefit to the district.

"It benefits the district because it builds employee knowledge and understanding of the district, which allows them to better serve the district and our students," Smith says. "[Employees] are deeply committed because their own children are in the system and they want our schools to be highly effective. All of our employees are ambassadors for the district, and they are better able to act in this capacity when they are deeply familiar with our schools."

Allowing employees' children to attend Laguna's schools, she says,  also results in employees spending more time at work and attending school events and activities.

Some other unified school districts in Orange County, such as Newport-Mesa, enforce boundary rules with no exceptions, board member Judy Franco says.

"Like Laguna Beach, we're also basic aid, so we don't receive any funding from the state for the day-to-day," she says. (State funding that is administered is reserved for specified programs such as special education.) "But unlike Laguna, our district serves 22,000 students and doesn't have as much money."

It is therefore, Franco says, unfeasible to bend the rules when it comes to student enrollment.

Still, others, such as Capistrano Unified and Irvine Unified districts, make an exception for a policy they feel benefits their districts.

Ian Hannigan, public information manager for Irvine Unified, which currently serves 114 out-of-district employee students, says that when his district switched to the basic aid model in 2009, it extended enrollment to employees' children, which he feels is in the best interest of its schools.

"We've had no complaints about this policy that I know of," Hannigan says. "We feel that granting this to employees is another tool in the toolkit to attract and retain quality staff."

Capistrano Unified, a  revenue-limit district that relies on the state for funding, offers the opportunity for not only employees' children, but also to any student from another district to enroll in its schools, chief communications officer Marcus Walton says.

"Families may apply for a transfer, and we need a release from a student's home district that permits the transfer, even if that student is the child of a district employee," he says.