Patty Wenger, the Bromfield School Council co-chairwoman, brought some concerns and questions about the school choice program to this week’s Finance Committee meeting. She said the council is concerned about overcrowding in the school, which could become a bigger problem if too many choice students are accepted in order to meet revenue quotas. One of her questions was about what role the Finance Committee has in setting those quotas. She said the council had been told by the superintendent and School Committee that they were required by the Finance Committee to raise a targeted amount of revenue through school choice.
When Finance Committee members assured Wenger that only the School Committee and superintendent can decide how much to raise through the choice program, she asked if they thought the town would support making up a $100,000 to $200,000 financial shortfall in order to control the growth of the school population through the addition of choice students. Concerned that this growth will drive the need for a new school sooner, she suggested that residents might prefer making up the difference versus building a new school or adding to the existing one.
After confirming that Wenger was talking about the budget for fiscal year 2009 (July 1, 2008, to June 30, 2009), Finance Committee member George McKenna said that the only source for raising the money would be an override at next year’s town meeting. He suggested that giving preference to Devens students (tuition $9,500) over regular choice students (reimbursement $5,500) would be one way to decrease the overall population while maintaining the revenue. Finance Committee member Cindy Russo cautioned that history has shown that once a certain number of choice students is reached, “you get into a bad financial situation if you can’t maintain that number.”
The school choice program in Massachusetts allows parents to send their children to schools in communities other than the city or town in which they reside. Tuition is paid by the sending district to the receiving district. School districts may elect not to enroll school choice students if no space is available.
