SOUTH CENTRE TWP. - Columbia-Montour Vocational-Technical School may use a lottery to decide what students are admitted from the school's seven home school districts, the Press-Enterprise of Bloomsburg reported.
The change in admission policy is being considered as a result of a threatened discrimination lawsuit that may be filed by parents of a 15-year-old special-needs student from the Southern Columbia Area School District who was denied admission.
Harry Mathias, Central Columbia School District superintendent who is currently the vo-tech school's superintendent of record, said all students applying to the school would still be required to meet admissions requirements. Not all students, however, would be guaranteed enrollment.
The school, which has an enrollment of 626 students, serves Southern Columbia, Central Columbia, Bloomsburg, Berwick, Danville, Benton and Millville. District enrollment figures determine how many students each district may send to the vo-tech school.
A separate lottery, which might involve drawing names from a hat, would be held for each of the seven districts.
Under current policy, the vo-tech allows for a certain number of admissions of special-needs students.
