Valley Stream officials say residency policies working

Valley Stream school officials say the strict residency requirements are working to keep students out of the schools who don’t belong. The Residency Advisory Committee held its annual meeting on Nov. 1 at Memorial Junior High School.

Bill Heidenreich, the Central High School District’s assistant superintendent for administration, chairs the committee. He said that between July 2009 and June 2010, 756 new students requested enrollment in either the high school district, District 13 or District 24. Of those, 737 provided sufficient documentation to be accepted. Only 19 were denied or referred to another school district.

Heidenreich said in some of the cases where a student was denied, it was because they live in Valley Stream but are not in the boundaries of a Valley Stream school district. For example, he said, there are parts of North Valley Stream that belong to the Elmont School District.

The residency office is based at the Central High School District but also serves Districts 13 and 24. It handles the enrollment of new students, the re-registration of current students, and investigations of students believed to be living outside of district boundaries.

Is it worth it?

School and village officials say the investment in the residency office is worthwhile. Heidenreich said the cost is about $100,000 a year, split among the three participating districts, with the high school district picking up a majority of the cost.

Tony Iadevaio, a long-time District 24 and high school board member, said at one point there were likely hundreds of kids attending school in Valley Stream who didn’t belong. “It’s been dropping every year because they know it’s very difficult to get into the Valley Stream Central High School District,” he said.

Heidenreich said at one point there was a perception that is was “easy” to get into Valley Stream schools. Now that has changed, he said, so it’s likely people from outside of the district don’t try anymore. That is why he says it’s hard to quantify the true effectiveness of the residency office. “You spend $100,000 but do you save that much?” he asked. “You really don’t know.”

District 13 and high school board trustee Bill Stris says he is often questioned by residents as to why the districts pay all this money for a residency office if it doesn’t catch many people. Officials say that the purpose of the office is to prevent students who don’t belong from getting in to the district in the first place. “The word will get out if you stop doing it,” said Valley Stream Village Clerk Vinny Ang in support of the program.

Iadevaio, in speaking about the past, said he recalled once seeing about seven or eight New York City cabs dropping students off at the Shaw Avenue School. And Ang said one time while village officials were enforcing a no parking restriction during morning student drop-off at one of the schools, several of the plates came back to cars registered in Queens.

Ang said that may be a good idea to test the severity of the problem now. He suggested that residency office personnel randomly take plate numbers of cars dropping students off outside of a school in the morning, and run the plates to see where the cars are registered. Residency Officer Nick Luciano said he does have access to Department of Motor Vehicle records.

Tony Spezio, past president of the Central/Memorial PTSA, questioned why District 30 does not take part in the shared residency office. Superintendent Dr. Elaine Kanas said that district officials have considered it, but it would have been a greater expense than its current residency program.

“You are the closest district to the city line,” Spezio told Kanas. “In my opinion, you guys are the most vulnerable to this.”

Kanas said the district does have a registration packet, approved by the school attorney, specifying the documentation a parent or guardian needs to enroll their child in school. Registration is handled at each school by the main office secretaries following these procedures. For investigations, the district hires a private detective to investigate students believed to live outside the district. Kanas said the district pays the detective on a case-by-case basis.

Kanas said when it has been determined that a student does not live within District 30’s boundaries, the parents are given one week to provide documentation proving otherwise. If not, she said, the child has one additional week to leave. She said district officials also share this information with the Central High School District if the child has an older sibling.

A burden or a protection?

Stris said he has gotten complaints from parents about the policy in which they have to re-register their children for school in 10th and 11th grade. He said people say that it is unnecessary and a waste of money.

For Heidenreich, who has heard the complaints as well, he said he tells parents that the purpose of re-registration is to protect their tax dollars and guard against illegal students in the schools. He said about 80 of the 1,500 students in 10th and 11th grade have yet to re-submit their documentation this year. However, he said that alone is not grounds to remove them from the schools. The burden is on the school district to prove the child doesn’t live in the community. That’s why, he said, those students will likely be subject to an investigation by Luciano.

Based on past experiences, Heidenreich estimates that a majority of those 80 students are legal residents whose parents have just not filled out the paperwork.

Heidenreich also discussed the law regarding homeless students. He said that if a student becomes homeless while attending school in the district, they may continue to attend schools there even if they are placed in a shelter in another community. Heidenreich said this rule, which comes from the federal government, is designed to cause as little disruption in a student’s life during a difficult time.

He said the high school district currently has 10 homeless students. He said students can also choose to go to school in the district where the shelter is located, but few do. “More often than not,” he said, “kids want to continue to go to school with their friends.”