Parents of Current and Incoming Hardin Elementary Students:
The purpose of this letter is to make you aware of the process for requesting your child in PreK through 5th grade be allowed to attend a different Elementary School (Crow Agency Elementary, Fort Smith Elementary, Hardin Primary or Hardin Intermediate) within the Hardin School District. The necessary forms for this process are attached to this letter.
As a district, we take our responsibility to provide the best education possible, with the resources we have, very seriously. Part of this responsibility is to budget for, hire and assign the appropriate educational staff for each school. As I’m sure you are well aware, due to the current national and statewide teacher shortage, this process is becoming more difficult each year. One key piece to this puzzle is making sure we have a solid idea of how many students will be enrolled in each school; so, we are asking that families submit the Out of Area Request if they want their child or children to attend a different school. Please keep in mind that none of this is necessary if you change your residence, your child will be able to attend school in the area you move to.
Our Elementary attendance areas are as follows:
1) Along I-90, students who reside south of the Dunmore Exit (503) are assigned to Crow Agency Elementary, students north of that exit are assigned to the Hardin Schools (KRC, Primary or Intermediate as is grade appropriate). Students living in the Dunmore area will have the option of choosing between Crow Agency or Hardin Schools, but we will ask that the Out of Area Forms be submitted if you are requesting a change.
2) South of Hardin on Highway 313, students residing south of Saint Xavier are assigned to Fort Smith Elementary and students north of that are assigned to the Hardin Schools. Again, families in the Saint Xavier immediate area will have their choice of the different schools.
We are aware that there are a large number of students in the Crow Agency area who are currently attending school in Hardin; we will “grandfather” these students in. Please just let your child’s Principal know if you plan on making a change to where your child attends.
Because we are transporting students in the older grades (6-12) from the outlying areas (Crow Agency and Fort Smith) into the Middle and High Schools, we will allow younger students to utilize district transportation provided there is space available on these buses. While highly unlikely, if a bus does get overcrowded, we may deny transportation to “out of area” elementary students in reverse order based on how long they have been riding that bus.
If you live in the Hardin area and opt to have your child attend school in one of the outlying communities, please make sure you have a plan for transportation. We will not offer district transportation for students in the Hardin area who choose to attend school at Crow Agency or Fort Smith Elementaries.
Link to Out of Area Form: HERE
Please let us know if you have any questions. Thank you for the opportunity to work with your children!
Tobin Novasio
Superintendent