Lanesborough School To Consider New Policy Raising Tuition
Kevin Towle, from state Rep. Gailanne Cariddi's office, and Baker Hill Road District attorney Mark Siegars outlined the bill to give the district the authority to gain control of the Berkshire Mall property.
Interim Superintendent Kimberly Grady told the Board of Selectmen on Monday that she will be presenting new policies to guide tuition prices to the School Committee later this week.
The move is in response to Lanesborough officials' desire to significantly raise the tuition costs for students coming from New Ashford.
"The proposal would be that we create an annual tuition agreement to review the per pupil rates annually," Grady said.
Lanesborough officials have been pushing the School Committee to bring the tuition rate up to that of per pupil spending. Currently, the town spends some $16,000 per student, according to calculations done by the state, while charging New Ashford only $8,000 per student.
The town currently has a contractual agreement with New Ashford that runs through the next year. If these new policies are approved, the tuition rate would significantly increase to become more in line with the per pupil cost in subsequent years.
With the recent decision to close Cheshire Elementary School, the Board of Selectmen are now wondering if the elementary school can also craft a tuition agreement with Cheshire as well.
"We have treaded lightly around this," responded School Committee Chairwoman Regina DiLego.
DiLego said the closure has only recently happened so Lanesborough didn't look to get involved then. Secondly, tuition and choice has been under close scrutiny in town, the School Committee didn't think it was prudent to reach out to other towns until the future of the practice was more clear.
As for school choice, another pet peeve of some town officials, Grady says there are still more students "choicing" gout than choicing in. She wants the town to accept as many choice students as the number of those who choice out.
"Even if we vote to not take choice in that does not prevent students from going out," Grady said.
The superintendent said this school year, 25 students choiced out of Lanesborough. The town has accepted 17 choice students. That results in a net loss of money.
"It would be nice to know if there was going causing them to leave. It seems like a big number," Goerlach said.
Grady said she is currently crafting a survey to give to families who opt to choice out. She hopes that will provide some insight on why they are not choosing Lanesborough Elementary.
"We're a Level 1 school, we have great offerings, small classes, we still have all of our specialists so there wouldn't be anything going on based on our academic performances," Grady said.
When it comes to choice, Grady said the options will be fairly limited in the future. Once a student is approved to be choiced in at the elementary school level, then the student has the right to stay with the district throughout high school. Grady said both Williamstown and Lanesborough elementary school officials are carefully looking at the overall enrollment to ensure the new, and smaller, Mount Greylock building won't be overcrowded.
"The new building is going to essentially control the choice in numbers," Grady said.
The choice decisions have to be determined by grade levels, not by overall enrollment. Grady said none of the schools want to accept so many students that it will require additional classes, which would mean additional costs.
At Mount Greylock, Grady said she will be crafting a similar survey to send to those families as well. In total, 109 students in the region choose to go elsewhere, either through vocational agreements, choice, or other school agreements. The tuition rate is closer to the per pupil cost and there isn't a big difference between the choice in or choice out.
In other business, the Selectmen endorsed a state bill giving the Baker Hill Road District the authority to acquire more property, specifically the Berkshire Mall.
The district was created to own and manage the connector road between Routes 8 and 7, which it currently does. It is a taxing authority for the tenants on the road. The change to the district would allow it to become a partner in economic development, which includes access to public economic development funds.
"We've never been able to be involved in economic development," attorney Mark Siegars said.
The group hopes to reach a private/public partnership with a private developer to revitalize the mall. Siegars said the district had a private developer interested a few years earlier and as soon as the bill is passed, he'll be calling that entity back.
"Once the bill is passed my first phone call will be back to them," Siegars said.
He said the change wouldn't cost the town any money.
Tags: Berkshire Mall, LES, school choice, tuition,
