City, schools team up on kids attending classes illegally
By Jeff Gallatin
North Olmsted
Published June 20, 2007

City and school district officials are preparing to crack down on people having children illegally attending North Olmsted schools while living in other cities.

Council’s safety committee recommended June 11 passing legislation which would make it a first degree misdemeanor to give false information to a public official to allow a child to attend a city school free of charge. The full council was scheduled to hear the matter on second reading last night.

Potential false information cited includes giving a false name, address, family relationship or any other incorrect information. The legislation proposes a penalty of up to six months in jail and/or up to a $1,000 fine. It also requires the person convicted of the offense to fully reimburse the school district the total amount of money it should have received for the student attending the school.

North Olmsted School Superintendent Kurt Stanic said it’s an issue that needs to be dealt with.

“It happens more often than some people might think,” Stanic said. “It’s something the district felt needs addressing at our level. We appreciate the city working with us on it.”

Ed Kershaw, the attendance and residence officer for the North Olmsted City Schools, said the district has had to deal with the problem many times in recent years.

“We’ve had about four dozen cases like that in the last two to three years,” Kershaw said. “This would give us a little more ability to deal with people who try and do this.”

He said there is no one city where people come from who have had their children in North Olmsted schools.

“We’ve had them from Westlake and other surrounding Westshore cities,” he said. “Others have been from Cleveland. There’s no specific pattern to it.”

Kershaw said the reasons also vary.

“Sometimes they’ve lived in North Olmsted and they don’t want their child to leave their friends or the different activities or programs they’ve been involved in,” Kershaw said. “They also might want them to stay in specific academic programs like the Special Education or Honors programs. Both of them have strong reputations around the area and people like having their children in them. Others just might like the North Olmsted schools better than the ones in the city they’ve moved into.”

North Olmsted Mayor Thomas O’Grady, a former teacher in the North Olmsted City Schools, said whatever the reason, it shouldn’t go on.

“It takes away from the district by not giving it money and other resources it’s supposed to receive for students attending the schools,” O’Grady said. “It also can take away from teachers and other pupils who have to deal with the additional students.”

O’Grady said the city will try to cooperate with the district whenever possible to make the educational process easier.