TOWNSHEND — In the last two months of 2018, the Windham Central Supervisory Union office received and approved all 17 applications for elementary school students whose parents/guardians requested that the students' “home school” be transferred from the town in which they reside to a school in another town, according to Windham Central Supervisory Union Superintendent Bill Anton.
At the Jan. 14 meeting of the West River Modified Union Education District (WRMUED) at Leland & Gray Union Middle and High School, Anton said that he will continue to accept applications from parents/guardians in the WRMUED - which includes Townshend, Jamaica, Newfane, and Brookline (including representation on the school board by Windham, also) - who want to change their child's school, as not all the available slots were filled.
Anton noted that 16 of the applications were requests to move a student into the Townshend Elementary School. Overall, Anton said, the Jamaica Village School had the largest number of transfers out.
“When a student is transferred to a new school in the district, that school becomes the student's 'home school' through fifth grade,” Anton said, “and it is not necessary for the parent/guardian to re-apply annually.”
Anton anticipated that the residents of the district would question whether school choice would cause a decline in enrollment which would lead to closing a district elementary school.
The WRMUED Articles of Agreement, which the voters of the towns approved in compliance with Act 46, do not allow his office or the school board to close a school.
“Only the voters in a town can take that action,” he said.
As a result of the school-choice process, Anton stated that budget adjustments would allow for a reduction of one teaching position in the district and one principal position to shift from full-time to part-time.
The enrollment projections for kindergarten through fifth grade for 2019-20 are Jamaica, 30 students; NewBrook, 105 students; Townshend, 88 students. For pre-kindergarten, the projected enrollments are Jamaica, 8 students; Townshend, 20 to 40; and NewBrook, none.
Anton said that principal and teacher grade assignments at the three schools will be completed in March after the unified district school budget is approved by voters.
School choice based on models
Anton commented that as far back as three years ago, during the working meetings of the Act 46 Study Committee, elementary school choice was one of the policy matters that was deeply discussed, thoughtfully studied, and openly surveyed by the committee, and then discussed, studied, and surveyed again by the current board.
The board, he said, looked at model school choice policies from other school districts throughout the state, and after deliberation, the board wrote and approved a policy that allows for school choice based on availability of classroom space.