26 students ousted

Most of the 84 students probably do not attend Blair anymore and instead attend other Montgomery County schools, said Assistant Principal Linda Wanner. Out of the 84 students, 26 tried to enroll at Blair but were rejected when the administration found they did not have their residency proofs, she said.

Enrollment of students who lack registration materials has been an issue for the past three years. Wanner, who heads ninth grade registration, said that the administration has identified more students who are illegally enrolled at Blair this year than it has in previous years.

In addition to the 84 names, 140 students were withdrawn from Blair over the summer because most could not prove residency, said Wanner.

According to Wanner, the 84 students had until the end of September to prove that they live in the Blair district. Many of the 84 students have not responded to the administration's repeated requests for residential proofs, she said.

Students who could not prove they live in the Blair district have received a letter from Wanner informing them that they have been officially withdrawn from Blair.

Removing students who are enrolled illegally is an ongoing process because the administration continues to find new students who live
outside the school district, according to social studies teacher Brian Hinkle, who worked at the MCPS Residency Compliance Office last summer.

Hinkle believes that these students, some of whom live in Prince George's County and Washington, D.C., have filled out fake lease forms and other false residency proofs in attempts to enroll in Blair. "They'll actually lie to your face and give false [information]. There are forgeries all the time," he said.

In addition, Hinkle said, some students use more than one address in order to attend Blair. According to Hinkle, one student, who lives in Potomac, holds three different addresses in Montgomery County, one of which allows her to attend Blair legally.

On Aug 28, approximately 25 students, most of whom were freshmen, showed up for school but were not allowed to go to class. They were held in the SAC for the whole day because they never reregistered, according to ninth-grade Secretary Connie Monte. Most of those 25 students later showed proof of residency, she said.

However, the administration found that three of the students live in Prince George's County and therefore did not enroll them in Blair.

This year, 659 freshmen have successfully registered and have been approved for enrollment at Blair, according to Monte.

According to Hinkle, feeder middle schools do not strongly emphasize residency for incoming students. "If you put an address in Maryland, they'll take it," said Hinkle. Some of the students who enroll at Blair from feeder middle schools do not live in the Blair cluster, he said.