RCS explains enrollment procedure

Russellville City Schools applications are now available, and students from outside the RCS district may apply to enroll at RCS as soon as they are ready. What many will see as good news is, tuition will not be due until later in the summer.

Those are the highlights of the new application policy for Russellville City Schools. There are the finer details as well, of course.

“We have the applications at the schools,” explained Superintendent Heath Grimes. “We’re not distributing them to students, yet … but if someone wanted to, they could go ahead and pick those up. They return them to the schools, and the school will process them.”

Grimes said applications will be batch processed on three dates – sometime in May, sometime in June and sometime in July, with each date processing all applications received to that point. Applications will be formally distributed in April.

Tuition of $600 will be accepted in two payments, with the first payment due by early June and the second payment due by late July.

“When they turn their application in, it has nothing to do with payment,” Grimes said. “We will not accept payment until they have been accepted.”

Once payment deadlines roll around, parents may send a check to the school, or Grimes said the system is also working to be set up to accept debit/credit card payments.

There is no “deadline” for application. “They could apply in the middle of the school year next year, and we would still process that application,” Grimes said. Students who enter RCS mid-fall semester will still owe full tuition; a student entering RCS mid-spring semester will owe half tuition, $300.

Subsequent years will see a simplified application for renewal, with most if not all students being re-accepted, barring major academic, attendance or discipline issues.

“Once students are accepted, unless there is an issue, they are going to continue to be here,” Grimes said.