ORANGE BEACH – Students living outside Orange Beach city limits could pay $1,000 each if they want to attend school in the new municipal school system under a policy approved Tuesday, April 19.

The Orange Beach City School Board voted unanimously to approve the out-of-district policy for students. Robert Stuart, board chairman, said the policy on students has been a major topic of discussion since the Orange Beach City Council voted to split from the Baldwin County Public School System in March.

“Wow, that’s knocking out a big one,” Stuart said after the vote.

At an earlier work session, Member Nelson Bauer recommended that the tuition be waived for students now attending Orange Beach schools for the first year. He said the waiver would allow the board to decide on a permanent policy and for parents to consider if they wanted to pay the tuition.

Robbie Smith, interim superintendent, said Friday, April 22, that the board is still discussing tuition waivers.

Smith said the overall tuition policy is similar to guidelines in other municipal school systems.

“It's a working document, very flexible,” Smith said April 19. “We put the draft out for the public to view the other day. I feel like it mimics other systems. We kind of looked at a couple of other systems to come together and pull it all together.”

During the meeting, Smith told the parent of a student living outside the city that applications from students now enrolled in Orange Beach schools would be given the top priority in consideration.

Under the policy, students living outside Orange Beach could apply to attend schools in the city system. The tuition would be $1,000 for each student, up to $3,000 per family. The policy also gives the superintendent the authority to waive the fee.

Students living outside the district would have to meet system requirements for grades, attendance and discipline and could be expelled if the students do not meet the Orange Beach rules and regulations for conduct, the policy said.

The Orange Beach School System is scheduled to start July 1.

At the April 19 meeting, the board also established job descriptions for teachers and procedures for posting job openings. Smith said the board needs to be ready to see how many teachers and other staff members will need to be hired after officials see how many students will be attending in the upcoming year and if current teachers remain in their positions.

She said Orange Beach has requested a “Teach in Alabama” account to list job openings on the state website, but the account has not yet been created.

"So, we're waiting to hear back from state department on that, but in light of the teacher shortage, we really want to go ahead and get a good candidate pool established and move forward as quickly as possible,” Smith said.

She said the system will hold a job fair April 27 at the Orange Beach Civic Center from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Smith said the number of teachers and other employees will depend on how many students are expected in Orange Beach schools when the new academic year begins in August. She said parents should register their children as soon as possible so that officials can know how many students to prepare for.

“I want to encourage the public to move forward with registration as if the split was not happening,” Smith said. “Once we post registration for new students and returning students, we need all students to register as soon as possible so we can get accurate numbers.”

She said applications will also soon be available for out-of-district students.

“We do now have the out-of-district policy. We'll have applications out soon,” Smith said. “And we will need those applications back fairly quickly. Some guidelines will be coming out about tuition and how we're going to proceed for the 2022-23 school year and things like that, but we need accurate numbers for registration.”

The board also discussed drug testing in the upcoming school year.

“We are going to move forward with drug testing for next year,” Smith said. “The policy is currently in development. And I think the biggest thing is just so everyone knows that it will be coming forth next year. The policy will probably take some time. It's not something we want to rush through that we want to give thorough consideration to. We'll start putting some draft schoolwork. Again, just to make sure the public's aware that that is something we're going to pursue for next year.”

Stuart said Orange Beach officials and educators will be working to keep drugs off campuses.

“It's more than just political and it’s something we have to dive into to make sure that what we're doing is fair,” Stuart said. “That it is for the betterment of not just the students, but the teachers and staff. The kids in our city schools deserve a drug-free learning environment.”