School Choice - Part I of IV

School Choice Trends in Enrollment
Petersham Center Elementary School
Petersham, MA

Many of our discussions about regionalization have involved the topic of School Choice. School Choice is the process by which a student from one town can legally attend a school or district that is in a completely different town. Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 76, Section 12B spells out the rules by which schools can accept students from other towns and how funding passes from one school district to the other. This law is the same for any district in the state that wishes to accept students from other towns. Although the laws are the same, School Choice plays out very differently for each of our districts.
The next series of blog posts will focus on school choice in each district, one at a time. Today, I will start with Petersham Center Elementary School. In Fiscal Year 2011 Petersham Elementary received an average of $6,563.11 per student of choice from surrounding districts. While this amount does not reflect the true cost of education for a single student – it comes as much needed support for Petersham Center Elementary.

As you can see from the graph at the top of this post, the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education showed in 2011 that 56 students in the Petersham Center School were students who actually came to Petersham from surrounding towns. So, with this Petersham Center Elementary School received a little more than $370,000.00 in Fiscal Year 2011 for these 56 students.

Without School Choice each classroom at Petersham Center Elementary School would have an average of around 8 students per class. This low number of students in each class would drive the per pupil cost of education in this small school to an unsustainable amount. If Petersham did not accept School Choice Students, classrooms would have to be combined so that students from multiple grades would bein a single classroom. Commonly referred to as The Little House on the Prairie model, this would not be to the benefit of the students who attend this school.

Having students choice in to your school is a badge of honor. It means that parents from towns other than yours view your school as a better place for their children to learn. School Committees, administrators, and teachers alike take pride in the fact that their school is a desirable place for those outside of their own communities.

The next blog post will focus in on School Choice at Orange Elementary and the third will focus on Mahar. The final blog post will focus on School Choice in a new fully regionalized Pre-K – 12 district for the Mahar, Orange, and Petersham School Districts.