Permit Policy on School Committee Agenda Tonight

Tonight's School Committee meeting is expected to draw a large crowd at Hope Highlands Elementary School as the School Committee is scheduled to vote on the second reading of a controversial policy change that makes it much harder for a parent to get a permit to send their child to an alternate city school.

Earlier this month, the committee voted 4-3 to approve the first reading of the ordinance after a group of upset parents told them the changes would drastically affect hundreds of on-permit children by uprooting them from schools in which they've become integrated.

The motivation to change the ordinance, according to school officials, is due to increasingly difficult administration of student placements because so many permits were issued over the years. In many cases, permits were given for "inappropriate" reasons, such as better playgrounds or parking.

The new policy clearly dictates who can get a permit and why, mainly for medical reasons or specific scenarios that require a student to attend a certain school — not just because the home school isn't the best or a student has friends in a school farther from home.

In some cases, schools were so loaded with on-permit students, new students registering at their local schools were forced to get permits of their own because their home school was full. This is a situation that some see as unfair, but others argue that parents should have some choice when it comes to choosing details about their child's education.

The meeting tonight begins at 6 p.m. The committee begins their closed-door executive session then and the public meeting begins afterwards, usually between 6:30 and 7 p.m.