The Oglethorpe Echo
Oglethorpe County School System will begin conducting a regular residency audit on students this year.
Students entering the third, sixth and ninth grades will need to provide proof of residency in the county before Aug. 5 — the Monday before school starts — in order to be assigned a home room and scheduled for classes.
The Oglethorpe County School System “had some students’ addresses on properties that no longer existed,” Superintendent Beverley Levine said in a text message. She added at the Board of Education meeting in June that there were several instances of families on Facebook offering their addresses to students from outside the county to use to register for Oglethorpe County schools.
“What we want is to be good stewards of the taxpayer money,” Levine said after the BOE meeting. “We want to be sure that we’re educating Oglethorpe County students and not having kids who are coming in from other counties.”
Families that don’t live in Oglethorpe County may still send their students to schools in the county, but must pay annual tuition. The Oglethorpe County School System’s tuition was $2,710 last year and will be set for the upcoming school year at the July BOE meeting at 7 p.m. Tuesday, July 16.
Only 13 students paid out-of-district tuition last school year.
The school system will accept mortgage statements, current lease or rental agreements, or current gas, water or electric bills as sufficient proof of residency.
Families without these documents must complete a residency affidavit at the district office, which is valid for only one year.
Previously, the school system required proof of residence for students entering kindergarten or transferring into the county.
Levine and the BOE discussed the residency audit and affidavit for more than 30 minutes at the June BOE meeting, where board members expressed frustration with non-tuition-paying students from outside the county.
“It needs to be said,” BOE Chair Becky Soto said. “If you have knowledge, or you are assisting someone who does not live here to bring their kids to this school, you are putting a burden on our school system and our taxpayers.”