Pre-existing tuition agreements will not exempt school districts from footing the bill when their students choose to enroll in another public school through an open enrollment program, the State Board of Education ruled Thursday.
The decision means the Epsom School District must pay most of the tuition for its nine students who attend Prospect Mountain High School in Alton this year, even as district leaders argue they may also be on the hook for their tuition at Pembroke Academy, which has served as Epsom’s high school since 1969.
The board’s decision came a month after the Supreme Court clarified a point of ambiguity with respect to open enrollment: When a student enrolls at an open enrollment school, their home district remains responsible for paying a portion of the student’s tuition even if they don’t have a similar program in place.
Epsom argued that its situation — it participates in an Authorized Regional Enrollment Area, or AREA, agreement with Pembroke, Chichester and Allenstown — required an exception because the districts are all required to send their high school students to Pembroke Academy. Attorney Barbara Loughman said that if the district failed to do so, it could face litigation from the other members of the AREA agreement.
“If Pembroke prevails, Epsom will end up paying for the same students twice, once at Prospect Mountain and again, as damages for breach of contract, to Pembroke as well,” she wrote.
In upholding an earlier decision, the board found that students from the three sending towns could choose to attend open enrollment schools without violating the AREA agreement.
“I think the big picture is: Does an AREA agreement invalidate the open enrollment statute – does it create a force field or impenetrable zone which open enrollment can’t penetrate?” Board of Education Chair Drew Cline asked. “I understand the argument they are making, but I don’t see that apply.”
He reasoned that the AREA agreements were not breached when students enrolled elsewhere because it was their choice rather than their home district’s.
Jack Finley, the superintendent of Epsom, Chichester, and Allenstown, said the Epsom School Board would consider whether to appeal the ruling to the state Supreme Court at a meeting on Tuesday.
“I commend the parents for their passion for pursuing what’s in the best interest of their child,” he said. “What I’m trying to do is advocate for the 363 students that are at Epsom Central School, as well as the over a thousand students that I represent in my position as superintendent of Allenstown, Chichester, Epsom.”
As lawmakers consider legislation that would require all school districts to adopt open enrollment provisions, the board’s ruling on Thursday means the tuition obligations are absolute. Currently, Prospect Mountain is the only active open-enrollment school in the state, but other districts are now considering whether to follow suit, superintendents have said in interviews. (Franklin High School is also technically an open enrollment school, but its program is inactive.)
The coming changes could upend how public education operates in the state, increasingly promoting competition between school districts and diminishing the role geography plays in where students attend school.
Epsom resident Merle DeWitt, the father of two sons who attend Prospect Mountain, believes that’s a good thing.
“I think it would be healthy to have competition between schools,” said DeWitt, who appealed the Epsom School Board’s decision denying Prospect Mountain’s request for tuition. “Competition usually increases efficiency.”
DeWitt enrolled his eldest son at Prospect Mountain in 2023 after hearing about it through the parents of some of his soccer teammates. DeWitt and his wife, Mandy Reed, said they harbored concerns about safety issues at Pembroke Academy, where they noted a former administrator pleaded guilty to drug possession at school in 2018. DeWitt said he also believed the school struggled to control its students.
“They would allow students to wear whatever they wanted to wear, and some of the things my wife and I thought weren’t appropriate, like they would be furries, or things like that, and vampires,” he said.
The family has been satisfied with their sons’ education at Prospect Mountain, which they said has small class sizes. Both students are getting good grades, and their older son is enrolled in Lakes Region Technical Center’s carpentry program.
Their youngest child is still enrolled at Epsom Central School, which they are happy with. They said that for her to attend Pembroke Academy, the school has to “buckle down.”
DeWitt said he is disappointed that Epsom is considering appealing the board’s decision to the Supreme Court.
“It will be, unfortunately — if it goes to the Supreme Court — a waste of resources,” he said. “Maybe instead of wasting that time on appeals, the school board and school district could work on improving the AREA agreement and updating it so that it’s actually current with today’s educational landscape.”