LINN  — Linn R-2 board members at their November meeting voted to lower non-resident tuition to $2,000 per year. Additional family members will pay $500 annually. That’s $1,000 less for the primary student and half the cost for additional students than the board approved in July.

“We lowered our rate from $8,300 in the summer, if you guys recall,” Superintendent Bob James told board members. “We’ve had people pay our tuition, but I’ve been asked since then if they can make payments, so I want to have a discussion about that.”

Other school districts have differing methods. “Some require all at once, some require two payments per semester; you could do 25 percent each quarter,” James noted. “Any preferences by the group, or would you rather not get into the finance business at all? There’s an element where you’re chasing people for money. It’s a difficult discussion when they haven’t paid, say, Jan. 4, and you’re about to start school, and their student is in a desk. I don’t know if I want to get into the evicting student business.”

James added that other superintendents seem to be handling the situation well, with payment options and a grace period. “They reach out and speak with the family,” he said. “They give them a by-date; if not paid by then, they have to disenroll and enroll in their home district. Thoughts?”

“How many do we have?” Board President Dr. Shawn Strong asked.

James replied that two elementary students were non-resident payers.

He added that the Assessor’s Office audited registration addresses in the district and found four families with a home address here but do not live within R-2’s coverage area. “There’s a combination,” James said, noting that two don’t pay taxes to R-2 and the other two do. “I’ll be sending out letters to families with a copy of our district policy,” he added.

School policy 2240 reads: “Children whose parent/guardian owns real property within the District, but who reside outside of District boundaries. Such children may attend school upon payment of tuition, which will be reduced by the amount of real estate tax paid by the child’s parent/ guardian for School District purposes.”

“So if one student pays $3,200 in taxes, they wouldn’t need to bring anything to us,” said James. “If they paid taxes of $2,900, they would give us a check for $100.”

Dr. Strong said he’d been asked about the tuition rate and inquired if other board members had been approached.

Board member Mark Baker acknowledged he had been asked about it. “It wasn’t super serious,” he said. “It was more curiosity.”

James agreed, conveying that he had received a handful of calls from curious people. “That’s part of the reason I wanted to know about payments,” he said. “It’s a big deal. It could swing our district one way or another, so I want you to be involved.”

Dr. Strong asked how much money follows a student to another district.

James explained that based on Average Daily Attendance (ADA), which is generally near the State Adequacy Target (SAT) and with 95 percent attendance, the school receives about $6,000. As approved in July, tuition of $3,000 would provide approximately $9,000 to educate that student. Each additional student in a family would generate $1,000 based on previously approved figures.

ADA is calculated for every student, whether they are residents or not.

Dr. Strong said he wasn’t clear how much non-resident tuition factors into a student’s education, considering the $6,000 provided in ADA by the state.

“I’ve had enough people ask me about it, and now we’re talking about payment plans, so it makes me think if we charged them $2,000 a student, would that be better for us?” Dr. Strong asked. “I know we kicked numbers around, and then (board member) Brett (Phillips) threw $3,000 out there, and we went with it.”

“The last time we talked about this, you were saying we had room for growth, for more students,” VP Hannah Swann said to James. “Is that still the case?”

“We have not seen such an influx of students paying tuition that we’re having to hire additional teachers for that,” James replied, noting class sizes are low. “We have room to grow in our general curriculum classes before we even get to the average class size.”

Swann agreed with Dr. Strong. “I would hate to see you guys tracking down people for payment, but I do feel that families may have trouble coming up with $3,000,” she said. “That’s a lot of money. Maybe instead of payment plans, we look at lowering tuition again.”

“We can handle that in terms of the budget,” said James. “I don’t have a crystal ball to anticipate every transfer we might get, but I can’t think of anything that will overwhelm us in the immediate future.”

Baker said he doesn’t want to add work to anyone at the district regarding collecting payments, noting that payments each semester would be fair.

Phillips told colleagues he’s perfectly fine with a payment plan. “I don’t see any reason we shouldn’t work with people who may want to come,” he said. “I think our tuition should be low, and that’s why we made it lower, and I’m  good with it being lower yet. We’ll have increased enrollment regardless.”

James noted that state law requires the tuition rate to be set once a year, but nothing prevents the school from adjusting it.

“One thing we need to consider is we already have families paying at one rate,” said James. “The thing to do is give them a refund of the difference if we agree to lower it. That’s not going to break us, necessarily.”

“Why don’t you invite them to buy a house and move in (to the district)?” former R-2 board president Larry Hunt asked from the audience.

James replied that one family with a student in the district has already bought land and is building a house.

Dr. Strong said he favored lowering tuition to $2,000 and allowing a payment plan. He suggested payments could be spread over the nine months school is in session, or they could pay $1,000 each semester.

“We want to create a mechanism to encourage growth, or at least allow for it, right?” Phillips asked. “I don’t want tuition to be an impediment to someone coming here if they want to.”

Dr. Strong agreed but said tuition needs to be high enough that students removed from another district aren’t attending Linn R-2 for free. “We need to avoid that,” he added. “What’s the lowest number that avoids somebody that got removed from another district and is looking for a new home?”

“We reserve the right to deny a transfer, especially for long-term suspension or expulsion,” said James. “We have a reciprocal agreement in Missouri in that if they were suspended, say, for 120 days somewhere else, lived in the district, and only served 20 of those days, they would need to serve 100 days of suspension when they come into our district. It’s intended to keep students from hopping around.”

“I just assumed if they paid tuition, we had to take them,” said Dr. Strong.

With that, Swann put the measure on the table, and board members agreed to lower tuition for the 2023-24 school year as described above.

“We’re being aggressive, but I don’t know what other districts are doing,” said Dr. Strong.

“We’re on the low side,” James replied. “We’re trying to promote our school and raise enrollment.”

James reminded the board the issue can be revisited at any time.

Remaining business will be presented next week.