The one thing I get from this story is that Narragansett could have one principal and one vice principal for the middle & high school and save $200,000.00 dollars, which could lower the override question to $491,000.00. Level fund the superintendents office expense, the central office expense along with custodian expenses along with a little more trimming and the district could probably get the override request down to $300,000.00 which would be a 50% compromise with the taxpayers and I think that would sit well with the taxpayers and perhaps it would pass. It certainly would show a willingness to compromise and work with the taxpayers on the school costs issue coming up at town meeting.
Just some thoughts from over here.
Jeff Bennett
With public school enrollments flat, some school districts are stepping up efforts to recruit students through school choice to generate revenue. Others are recruiting students from other countries.
Some vocational-technical high schools have been sending out recruitment information for years. But it's rarely, if ever, heard of for traditional public school districts.
Quaboag Regional School District, which consists of Warren and West Brookfield, mailed more than 19,000 postcards to parents in Ware, North Brookfield, Southbridge, Spencer and East Brookfield in early April, touting the things the district has to offer. Among the highlights on the large, information-packed postcard are the district's cutting-edge technology; Advanced Placement biology, history, physics, and art classes; and its ranking of 58th statewide and 1,649 nationwide in U.S. News & World Report's 2012 best high schools.
Superintendent Brett M. Kustigian said that reflecting a statewide trend, the district's enrollment has been slowly declining over the past 15 years. Current enrollment is 572 at the high school and 1,317 districtwide.
Mr. Kustigian said that when he was hired in 2009, one of the goals from the School Committee was to look at how to make school choice work more to the district's advantage, and how to promote it whenever possible.
The district, he said, has begun reversing the enrollment trend with innovative programs such as one that allows high school students to get college credits.
For instance, in 2005, Quaboag received 33 school choice students and sent 106 students to other school choice districts. The trend started going the other way in 2009. This school term, 136 school choice students are attending Quaboag, bringing with them $766,553 in tuition. That's compared with 107 Quaboag district residents who left to attend other districts, mainly vocational-technical high schools, costing the district $597,068.
“The school district is working very hard to retain our students and to promote our innovative programs and put our best foot forward. So far, so good,” said Mr. Kustigian.
The West Boylston public school district this year distributed posters at the library, major grocery stores and other points in Worcester and neighboring communities, telling people about the good things the district has to offer.
West Boylston loses dozens of students each year to other schools, particularly Assabet Valley Regional Technical High School, at a cost of $16,000 for each student. Attracting more students through school choice will help make up some of that lost revenue.
John Owanisian, chairman of the West Boylston School Committee, said students today have so many options outside their community school, including charter schools, private schools, voke-tech schools, parochial schools and school choice.
“The nature of the educational landscape has changed. As such we operate in a competitive environment,” he said. “We're not trying to step on someone else's toes. But then, we don't want to sit on our hands, either. The posters are an effort to let people in adjacent towns know that we are a small school district with significant opportunities. I think when people are informed they are in a better position to make better decisions.”
Mr. Owanisian said his graduating class at Doherty Memorial High School in Worcester had nearly 500 students, compared with about 70 at West Boylston.
“With the small class size there's a more personalized education, and it affords the opportunity for students to participate more in extracurricular activities and sports,” he said. “A kid who may not make the varsity spot in a large school would perhaps have a better chance of participating at a small school.”
Some districts, mostly outside of Central Massachusetts, are recruiting students from other countries to generate revenue and to make their schools more diverse.
Hopkinton has 15 students in Grades 9-12 from Italy, Norway, China, Korea, Brazil, Germany and Spain.
Ashoke Ghosh, assistant high school principal in Hopkinton, said the district began accepting foreign students three years ago. They stay for one year. They come under the F1 visa program, which requires them to pay tuition to the school district. This year, each student pays $14,000 tuition, compared with the $5,000 districts receive for each school choice student. The foreign students also pay $700 a month to host families.
Mr. Ghosh said one reason for recruiting foreign students was to generate revenue to increase the district's world languages program. French, Spanish and some Latin were offered. This year, the district was able to pay the salary of a full-time Mandarin teacher and a district-level world languages coordinator.
“We didn't need the money to maintain our languages program, but we did need it to grow it,” he said.
The second reason for bringing foreign students to the district was to increase diversity and classroom enrichment.
“It's been working really well. We usually get more requests than we can place. There's a huge demand for students to study here,” he said. “We get calls every other day from agencies interested in placing students with us.”
Teri Silvestri, spokeswoman for Educatius International, said in an email that the 10-year-old agency saw an increase of 50 percent in public school enrollments from 2011 to 2012. She said an even greater increase was expected this year. Currently 40 districts in the U.S., including six in Massachusetts, are hosting students from 26 countries.
Ms. Silvestri said an American education is highly valued around the world for several reasons. One is that curriculums here typically put more attention on the unique needs and strengths of each student, encouraging innovation and creativity. Also, most schools in other countries don't offer the sports and extracurricular activities found at American schools.
“Recognizing the importance of global education, public school districts welcome international students to diversify their student enrollment and to share their unique perspective from around the world,” she said. “And, of course, tuition-paying international students bring new revenue streams to add or maintain extracurricular or enrichment programs that benefit the entire school. This is especially important at a time of increasingly downward pressure on state tax dollars.”
The North Brookfield school district has two international students — from Hungary and Switzerland — at the high school this year. The students came under the J1 visa program and do not pay tuition to the district. The district has accepted two more foreign students for next year.
Superintendent John A. Provost said the district benefits from having students from other parts of the world. Like Hopkinton, the North Brookfield school district is significantly homogeneous.
“Kids in North Brookfield don't necessarily get exposure to people from other places. I think that should be part of your experience of growing up, which would enrich their view of the world, even though we are not getting financial benefit,” Mr. Provost said. “If we can get tuition for them, certainly we'll pursue it that way.”
Last year, North Brookfield began advertising in local newspapers to try to attract students to its school choice program. The district loses more students than it gains through school choice. This year, 49 out-of-district students generated $253,035 for North Brookfield. But the district lost 116 students to other districts at a cost of $636,777.
William Evans, principal at the junior-senior high school, said North Brookfield is doing things such as adding varsity sports, bringing in a virtual high school program and expanding course selections.
“We're hoping we're going to become more of a (school) choice destination. They'll get the small-school benefit, personalized environment and the same academics and extracurricular activities they would get at a bigger school,” Mr. Evans said.
Contact Elaine Thompson at ethompson@telegram.com. Follow her on Twitter @EThompsonTG
Some vocational-technical high schools have been sending out recruitment information for years. But it's rarely, if ever, heard of for traditional public school districts.
Quaboag Regional School District, which consists of Warren and West Brookfield, mailed more than 19,000 postcards to parents in Ware, North Brookfield, Southbridge, Spencer and East Brookfield in early April, touting the things the district has to offer. Among the highlights on the large, information-packed postcard are the district's cutting-edge technology; Advanced Placement biology, history, physics, and art classes; and its ranking of 58th statewide and 1,649 nationwide in U.S. News & World Report's 2012 best high schools.
Superintendent Brett M. Kustigian said that reflecting a statewide trend, the district's enrollment has been slowly declining over the past 15 years. Current enrollment is 572 at the high school and 1,317 districtwide.
Mr. Kustigian said that when he was hired in 2009, one of the goals from the School Committee was to look at how to make school choice work more to the district's advantage, and how to promote it whenever possible.
The district, he said, has begun reversing the enrollment trend with innovative programs such as one that allows high school students to get college credits.
For instance, in 2005, Quaboag received 33 school choice students and sent 106 students to other school choice districts. The trend started going the other way in 2009. This school term, 136 school choice students are attending Quaboag, bringing with them $766,553 in tuition. That's compared with 107 Quaboag district residents who left to attend other districts, mainly vocational-technical high schools, costing the district $597,068.
“The school district is working very hard to retain our students and to promote our innovative programs and put our best foot forward. So far, so good,” said Mr. Kustigian.
The West Boylston public school district this year distributed posters at the library, major grocery stores and other points in Worcester and neighboring communities, telling people about the good things the district has to offer.
West Boylston loses dozens of students each year to other schools, particularly Assabet Valley Regional Technical High School, at a cost of $16,000 for each student. Attracting more students through school choice will help make up some of that lost revenue.
John Owanisian, chairman of the West Boylston School Committee, said students today have so many options outside their community school, including charter schools, private schools, voke-tech schools, parochial schools and school choice.
“The nature of the educational landscape has changed. As such we operate in a competitive environment,” he said. “We're not trying to step on someone else's toes. But then, we don't want to sit on our hands, either. The posters are an effort to let people in adjacent towns know that we are a small school district with significant opportunities. I think when people are informed they are in a better position to make better decisions.”
Mr. Owanisian said his graduating class at Doherty Memorial High School in Worcester had nearly 500 students, compared with about 70 at West Boylston.
“With the small class size there's a more personalized education, and it affords the opportunity for students to participate more in extracurricular activities and sports,” he said. “A kid who may not make the varsity spot in a large school would perhaps have a better chance of participating at a small school.”
Some districts, mostly outside of Central Massachusetts, are recruiting students from other countries to generate revenue and to make their schools more diverse.
Hopkinton has 15 students in Grades 9-12 from Italy, Norway, China, Korea, Brazil, Germany and Spain.
Ashoke Ghosh, assistant high school principal in Hopkinton, said the district began accepting foreign students three years ago. They stay for one year. They come under the F1 visa program, which requires them to pay tuition to the school district. This year, each student pays $14,000 tuition, compared with the $5,000 districts receive for each school choice student. The foreign students also pay $700 a month to host families.
Mr. Ghosh said one reason for recruiting foreign students was to generate revenue to increase the district's world languages program. French, Spanish and some Latin were offered. This year, the district was able to pay the salary of a full-time Mandarin teacher and a district-level world languages coordinator.
“We didn't need the money to maintain our languages program, but we did need it to grow it,” he said.
The second reason for bringing foreign students to the district was to increase diversity and classroom enrichment.
“It's been working really well. We usually get more requests than we can place. There's a huge demand for students to study here,” he said. “We get calls every other day from agencies interested in placing students with us.”
Teri Silvestri, spokeswoman for Educatius International, said in an email that the 10-year-old agency saw an increase of 50 percent in public school enrollments from 2011 to 2012. She said an even greater increase was expected this year. Currently 40 districts in the U.S., including six in Massachusetts, are hosting students from 26 countries.
Ms. Silvestri said an American education is highly valued around the world for several reasons. One is that curriculums here typically put more attention on the unique needs and strengths of each student, encouraging innovation and creativity. Also, most schools in other countries don't offer the sports and extracurricular activities found at American schools.
“Recognizing the importance of global education, public school districts welcome international students to diversify their student enrollment and to share their unique perspective from around the world,” she said. “And, of course, tuition-paying international students bring new revenue streams to add or maintain extracurricular or enrichment programs that benefit the entire school. This is especially important at a time of increasingly downward pressure on state tax dollars.”
The North Brookfield school district has two international students — from Hungary and Switzerland — at the high school this year. The students came under the J1 visa program and do not pay tuition to the district. The district has accepted two more foreign students for next year.
Superintendent John A. Provost said the district benefits from having students from other parts of the world. Like Hopkinton, the North Brookfield school district is significantly homogeneous.
“Kids in North Brookfield don't necessarily get exposure to people from other places. I think that should be part of your experience of growing up, which would enrich their view of the world, even though we are not getting financial benefit,” Mr. Provost said. “If we can get tuition for them, certainly we'll pursue it that way.”
Last year, North Brookfield began advertising in local newspapers to try to attract students to its school choice program. The district loses more students than it gains through school choice. This year, 49 out-of-district students generated $253,035 for North Brookfield. But the district lost 116 students to other districts at a cost of $636,777.
William Evans, principal at the junior-senior high school, said North Brookfield is doing things such as adding varsity sports, bringing in a virtual high school program and expanding course selections.
“We're hoping we're going to become more of a (school) choice destination. They'll get the small-school benefit, personalized environment and the same academics and extracurricular activities they would get at a bigger school,” Mr. Evans said.
Contact Elaine Thompson at ethompson@telegram.com. Follow her on Twitter @EThompsonTG
Jeff, I agree with you 100%. When I looked at the budget those are exactly the questions that came into my mind. Why do we need a principal and vice principal for the middle school and high school ? I also looked at the increases in some of the budget items and just could not fathom how the schools could let that happen.
ReplyDeleteI want to see the school make a real effort at cutting the budget. If they did that and still had a shortfall then I would indeed consider voting for an override. But until I can see that they are making an honest effort they will never get my vote.
I think it is unhealthy for the same people to be on the school committee year after year. New ideas get lost in the pressure of getting along. You might want to know how the school building committee spent two hundred thousand dollars, just looking for land, with no results!! Who is responsible for doing things like this??? Wasn't anyone smart enough to say no? Oh yes, someone might get mad at you!!! I know some of those people have been replaced, thank goodness! Templeton has never been a wealthy town, but at least we had Temple Stewart, to help with some tax relief. Until we can get some type of industry in town, and the economy improves, things will be tough. As a friend of mine says, "it is what it is." So as far as I can see, the budget for the school needs a reality check, then I think you will not have as much trouble getting a budget that people will support. Simple as that! Bev.
DeleteMedical ins pg 27 200k increase , unemployment comp 35k only 2 parts of the puzzle =235k 1/4 of a million? Thats only 1 page worth of cost increases. How much do the retired teachers pay % in medical insurance cost? Is there a cap on what the budget can afford? What if obama care doubles the premium we now pay? Will the price for it go to 4 million?
ReplyDeleteI think the costs for everyone are out of control and have been for some time.
Well the good news is whether people vote yes or no in town meeting the money isn't there so the state will be coming in to set the budget. That means no shady deals and certainly no pot stiring from Virginia Wilder!
ReplyDelete