At 5 P.M. today the Brewster Central School District announced via its Text, Telephone and email parent contact system their decision to require MANDATORY re-registration of ALL Students in grades K-12 for the upcoming school year (2018/2019). Recent accusations by several residents that there are children in the schools that do not reside within the district boundries as required by law may have prompted the decision. Facebook discussions regarding this matter have been plentiful in recent weeks and several dozen parents also brought the matter before the Board of Education several weeks ago.
The District's response at that time was to create a District Residency Task Force comprised of District teachers, Administrators and parents. At this time it is not publicly known what measures the task force recommended the District take to ensure the validity of all residents but this action seems to be the most logical next step.
Re-registration is by appointment only Moday to Thursday 8 am to 8 pm and Fridays from 8am until 4 pm. all the neccessary forms and residency requirements are on the Districts webpage. brewsterschools.org. Re-registration must be completed by August 31st.
(The folowwing is the announcement posted on the districts re-registration page)
Dear Parent/Guardian,
The Board of Education has established a system to ensure that all students who attend the Brewster Central School District legally reside within the district’s boundaries. Like a number of other school districts in our region, Brewster may have students from neighboring towns attend Brewster schools even though they are not legally entitled to do so. State statutes are very clear that children must attend the public school in the district in which they are legally domiciled. In order to guarantee that only children of Brewster CSD residents are attending the Brewster schools, we are requiring that all students in grades K-12 re-register.
As part of the re-registration process, you are required to make an appointment on our booking system and provide all required proofs of residency as described on our Residency Re-registration Certification Form. We do realize that this procedure may be an inconvenience, but hope that you understand that with increasing property taxes and tighter school budgets, it is essential that every dollar spent in our schools goes towards the education of Brewster CSD residents only.
If you have any questions about this process, please refer to the helpful documents linked to this page or contact our District Registrar at 845-279-8000 ext. 6110. Thank you in advance for your cooperation.