no recommendation, the Coweta County Board of Education

decided Tuesday night to stay the course on its present

policy of no exceptions to its current student transfer

policy.

The board

met in a called session to determine whether it wanted to

change its current policy. The policy allows the

superintendent to allow transfers only if a safety issue

is involved.

The

superintendent, along with some board members, received

calls from parents at the beginning of this school year

who wanted to transfer their students to other schools

for a variety of reasons.

"If

it's a social issue or an athletics issue, then it's

really not a reason in my mind to grant a transfer,"

said superintendent of education Richard Brooks.

Brooks

explained that he was not asking the board to change its

policy to grant more exceptions. The issue simply came up

when school started and parents started calling and

asking that their children be transferred.

Some

parents are claiming the child needs to be transferred to

insure "emotional well-being" and Brooks wanted

to know how the board would feel about using that reason

as an exception to transfer the student.

School

board attorney Joe McNabb weighed in on the issue and

said mental health problems could be construed as a

safety problem. The board already allows the

superintendent to make exceptions on safety issue, so

McNabb did not see a reason to change the policy.

Before the

board implemented the policy of allowing very few

exceptions, board member Bill Covington said the system

had nearly 10 percent of the students who were going to

school out of their district and he didn't want to see a

return to that scenario.

Board

member Rick Melville, who serves on the board's policy

committee, agreed with Covington and said the policy is

working fine. He has received only about three calls this

year from disgruntled parents, he said.

The board

did not vote on a new policy, so the present policy with

only the safety exception will stand.

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