The Grants Pass School District Seven Board voted against opening enrollment during the board’s Tuesday night meeting citing the amount of unknowns associated with the approval of the proposal.

Board Chair Gary Penning made the motion to deny open enrollment after citing recent meetings with representatives from Three Rivers School District. “I’d like to entertain a motion that the district not pursue open enrollment pursuant to HB 3681 for the 2012-13 school year and that administration be instructed to meet with their counterparts in neighboring districts to modify the current inter-district transfer protocol to better serve the educational needs of students,” Penning said.

Penning, Board Member Richard Ward and Superintendent John Higgins said that during these meetings the two boards agreed on maintaining the current transfer process and to further develop this system with attention paid to transfer equality and student’s academic goals.

During comments, Board Member Gary Richardson felt that a small amount of students should be allowed to enter the high school so the district could further understand the ramifications of inter-district transfer.

Six board members voted against open enrollment and Richardson abstained.