On the first day of school, 6-year-old Isaac Brickman joined a new class, starting first-grade at Bancroft Elementary. He has since been forced to leave the school. The reason? Although the family is building a home in the Bancroft school district, and plans to move in during the school year, it does not yet live there.
Even after the family rented an apartment in town, the school department would not allow Isaac to continue at Bancroft. The family says it could only find a temporary home large enough for the family in the West Elementary School district, and so Isaac is now attending West Elementary.
The Brickman family is most upset because a school employee, on two occasions before the school year started, said it was OK to enroll Isaac at Bancroft, because the family had a purchase-and-sale agreement to buy a property in the district, said Isaac's mother, Leila Brickman. While the superintendent says the family was twice notified that their purchase and sale agreement would not be sufficient, Leila Brickman says the family was not informed of this until one week before school started.
"You have to be a resident, and I think that's really clear in (school) policy. Residency means residency. Proof of residency assumes that you're going to live here," said Superintendent Claudia Bach this week.
The family received a letter from Bach one month after school opened, telling them Isaac would have to leave Bancroft after Oct. 13 because the family did not yet live in town.
The family is now renting an apartment in the West Elementary district.
"They (the Andover Schools) have never really tried to make it right," said Brickman. "(Bach) is not willing to take any responsibility."
Brickman case history
Leila and Raphael Brickman have put a deposit down and have a purchase and sale agreement for property on Locke Street, where they are in the process of tearing down an existing house and building a new home. At the beginning of the school year, the Brickmans were living in Danvers because the new house in Andover won't be ready for several months.
Before the start of the school year, both Leila and Raphael Brickman spoke with a secretary at Bancroft who told them a purchase and sale agreement for property in the Bancroft district was sufficient enough to enroll Isaac, said Leila Brickman. After receiving the OK, the family sold their Danvers house and moved into a temporary apartment in Danvers so their 2-year-old could continue at his Montessori school until they move to Andover when their house ready.
Bach says requiring purchase and sale forms as proof of residency to enroll a child carries the assumption that a family will be living at the property.
"This family knew they had to be residents, and they knew this before school started," she said. "We don't take any pleasure, it's very painful to us, to say 'your child can't attend school here anymore.'"
Bach says the Brickmans were given notification - phone calls on two occasions - that their purchase and sale agreement was not sufficient.Leila Brickman says the family was not informed until just before the school year, after it had sold its old house.
She said her family looked for an apartment in the Bancroft school district, but all they could find was a room for rent. They rented the room and Isaac started school at Bancroft, bringing a copy of their lease to school.
After Isaac had gone to Bancroft for one month, the Brickmans received Bach's letter stating Oct. 13 would be Isaac's last day. The Bancroft district room was not considered the real home of the family.
After a second search, the only apartment the family found was in the West Elementary district. Isaac started at West Elementary on Oct. 15, after a copy of the Brickman's new lease was faxed to the school department's lawyer. The family moved to Andover the weekend of Oct. 17.
It has all been an unnecessary headache, said Brickman. Not only was Bach's inflexibility not in Isaac's best interest, said Brickman, but disruptive to two classrooms. Bach would not make an exception to allow Isaac to stay at Bancroft, said Brickman.
Targeting non-residents
Bach says the district has six to 10 families every year that have to be asked to leave because they do not actually live in town.
In the past, families have given the school an address of an empty lot, with no house on it, to attend Andover schools. In another case, four different families listed the same address.
"I've even driven by (addresses) myself, and the police have gone by, and found a completely empty house, with no furniture," said Bach.
In some cases, parents or neighbors will call the school department to report a nonresident. Sometimes, parents notice a child being dropped off at a bus stop who doesn't live in the neighborhood.
"You cannot attend school unless you're physically sleeping here. That's the policy and we try to be very firm," said Bach. "We do it for a reason, so that we can be fair to our families, fair to our citizens. I always feel bad when the child is the victim."
One exception to the residency rule is a department policy that children of teachers and staff can attend Andover schools. There are 39 nonresident children of staff attending Andover schools this year, said Bach.
There is one other student for which Bach has made an exception this year, an Andover High School senior whose family moved out of town after the start of the school year. The student has been allowed to stay at AHS to graduate with the class in the spring.
In cases of exemption, nonresident students must provide their own transportation.
Battling e-mails
Last week, Leila Brickman sent an e-mail to Bancroft staff and parents, telling her side of Isaac's situation.
"I am sending you this as an outraged mother, yes, but I also feel it is very important for you to know what kind of leader and decision maker Ms. Bach is because it could be your child in Isaac's shoes some day," she wrote. "The amount of heartache, stress and sleeplessness this situation has caused us is beyond description."
Several days later, School Committee Chairwoman Debra Silberstein sent an e-mail to parents countering Brickman's, via the school list serv.
"Due to the desirability of our public schools, the non residency of students has been an ongoing issue over the years. As you may know, educating nonresidents has a significant cost to the district. We (the School Committee) have instructed our superintendent about the importance of enforcing the residency policy," wrote Silberstein, in part. "The family did not reside in Andover at the start of school year. They were told that their son could not attend school in Andover until such time as they were actually residing here."
According to the state department of elementary and secondary education, Andover's per pupil expense was $12,536 for 2008.
To see Andover school's residency policy, go to www.aps1.net and click on "school committee" on the left hand side, and then "policy manual." The residency policy is in section JF.
