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Show Parents upset at policy regarding school cut-off date By SHARON MORREY At least two parents are upset by the Alpine District Board of Education decision to move the cutoff cut-off date for starting school from Oct. 30 to Sept. 30 this year, in an effort to move gradually to the state mandated cut-off of Sept. 1 by 1983. Carol Smith appeared before the Board October 26 and tried to explain her daughter's predicament. "She was in preschool the year before, now she has been in a private kindergarten kin-dergarten this past year and she is ready for 1st grade. We've been told "no exceptions" to your arbitrary cut-off date and we feel that is unfair," un-fair," declared Smith. "We did not have fair warning of this," added another mother. "And there is such a thing as stopping a child who is ready to learn." Board president Dan Fugal explained ex-plained that district policy has always been "generally no exceptions." "It is unfortunate that we are relegated to live by dates," commented com-mented Fugal, "but that is how it is." Fugal added that the board has empowered the district superintendent superin-tendent to except a child "in extreme circumstances" but that the policy of no exceptions is the rule. Dr. Clifton Pyne added that the district administrative staff, faced with this question many times during the past years, has always found chronological readiness to be the most fair way of determining when a child enters school. The mothers were advised to seek out Superintendant Max Welcker with their concerns. "We just feel the child should be the consideration and not the law," said Mrs. Smith. "Next year the State tells you what to do, but this year you can determine what happens." |