Printable VersionThe Arizona Department of Education is reviewing whether or not Lake Havasu Unified School District officials complied with a state law with its early graduates.
Lake Havasu High School officials distributed fliers to its seniors who opted to graduate early in December asking for them to return after the winter break and attend school at least every Wednesday up until Jan. 20 — the hundredth day of the school calendar year.
The ADE largely bases how much money a district receives the following year for its budget from student attendance — particularly on the hundredth day of school. A complicated state formula allots a dollar amount per student, and even one student absence on that day could cost school districts funding for the following year.
The flier states: “… if you do not attend on Jan. 20th, then you will not be able to walk at graduation.”
Rezzonico said it would be “wrong” for the district to ask students to attend school after graduating just to receive additional state funding.
LHUSD Superintendent Gail Malay said the flier was passed out under the previous LHHS principal Kathy Cox, who resigned suddenly due to personal reasons Dec. 18.
“There’s the business side of education where we really have to pay attention to our dollars,” Malay said. “This is not unheard of. It’s a dilemma. We want our kids to accomplish their goals, but we also have to watch the business side of the business.”
Malay said that even if early graduates did not attend school during January, they would still be allowed to walk with their peers during the spring commencement.
But she stated that district officials had no knowledge of the state statute, and if they had they would have never intentionally broken the law.
She said now that she is aware of the law the district will discontinue the practice.
The LHUSD governing board became aware of the loss of funding due to early graduation during an April 14, 2009, regular board meeting.
The meeting’s minutes state: “The promotion of early graduations has resulted in lost revenue to the district at over $4,000 in (attendance) per student, and with about 40 seniors per year taking advantage of early graduation this year, for example, we are losing over $42,000, half of the revenue received for those students due to early graduation.”
LHUSD Governing Board President Jo Navaretta suggested during the April meeting that the early graduate students return to school until the hundredth day.
“The original intent of that agenda (item) is to try to get the kids to come back so we wouldn’t lose our enrollment on the hundredth day,” Malay said.
An e-mail sent from Sue Sonderen, a LHHS counselor, to Cox on Dec. 9 asked for guidance on a request for early graduation numbers.
“… by recognizing students now in the paper, it’s sending a message to the public that we have early graduates and would parents of undergrads start thinking about this and would we then have more leaving before the hundredth day? If any of these students are interviewed, will they discuss the fact that they have to come back until the hundredth day? Not sure we would want that in print.”
Interim Principal, and former LHHS assistant principal, Denise Miner wrote in an e-mail Friday that she previously wasn’t involved with early graduation coordination, but to her knowledge this is the first year the district asked for the additional attendance.
She said 10 of the 19 reported early graduates returned to school on Jan. 20.
One of those students was 17-year-old Candace Grabowski.
Grabowski said she decided about half way through her junior year when she decided to graduate early in order to work and save money for college.
“I was just, like, quite surprised that they would want us to come back just to walk at graduation,” she said. “I know they need the money. It would have been nice if they would have told us up front about that.”
Voters turned down the district’s request in a November election to continue property taxes for school funding for the next seven years. The district must now strip $1.2 million from next year’s budget, and is facing declining state revenue. The district is expected to vote in February on whether to close one of its two middle schools to meet its tightening bottom line.
Grabowski said working her way toward early graduation was “actually very easy.” She took summer classes after her freshman, sophomore and junior years, which she said were easier than taking them through the regular school year.
She said the early graduation is “actually pretty cool because you don’t have like more responsibilities for a while and it lets all the pressure off, I guess.”
She plans on attending The Bryman School of Arizona in the fall to study to become an X-ray technician, she said.
Grabowski said she found out the day before what was supposed to be her last day of her high school career — Dec. 17 — that she would have to come back to school in January in order to participate in her high school graduation.
“I just sat in my normal classes,” she said. “It kind of felt just pointless, but it didn’t really bother me.”
You may contact the reporter at jleatherman@havasunews.com
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