CHESHIRE, Mass. — The Adams-Cheshire Regional School District is down 7 percent in enrollment. 

 

According to Oct. 1 preliminary enrollment numbers, the district dropped 98 students, from 1,318 down to 1,220. This year's enrollment numbers are down more than 300 since 2010.

 

"I had anticipated that we would have a precipitous decline in enrollment," Superintendent Robert Putnam said. "I think I have said it every opportunity I have had that the only way we will win them back is to increase the performance of all students."  

 

Putnam was asked to meet with the Board of Selectmen on Tuesday to go over new enrollment numbers. He said enrollment dropped 38 last year. 

 

The superintendent said out of the 98 students, 46 students physically moved out of the district.

 

"This has nothing to do with school choice such as going to McCann or BArT or anywhere else," he said. "Some families just moved out of Adams and Cheshire." 

 

Selectwoman Carol Francesconi said she thought many of these families moved because of the closing of Cheshire Elementary School. 

 

"I am willing to bet more than half of them left because of the closing of Cheshire School," she said. "I can start naming families on my hands of folks who left and I can think of at least 20."

 

The elementary school closed at the end of last school year as the district consolidated into two buildings for costs savings.

 

Chairman Robert Ciskowski said many of the families may have left for other reasons, but the closing of the school has not only hurt the district but the town.

 

Putnam added that preliminary numbers show that 35 students school-choiced out after the closing of school last year to surrounding districts. Thirty of these students were from Cheshire.

 

"That is the best info we can get right now…students choiced to Central Berkshire, Lanesborough, Williamstown, Savoy, Crosby and Allendale," he said. "That is essentially where we stand."

 

Putnam said the district will have firmer numbers and information in January when other districts report back enrollment.

 

He added that a bulk of the decrease in anticipated students happened at the elementary level with the largest decrease of 16 at the first-grade level. The actual number for Grade 2 was 14 below projected enrollment.

 

The drop was less at the middle school level with Grade six having the largest decrease of 10 and a slight increase in eighth grade. In the ninth grade, 41 students opted to attend McCann Technical School, which is less than last year's amount.

 

Thirteen students chose Berkshire Arts & Technology Public Charter School.

 

Other than that, Putnam said high school enrollment stayed mostly flush with anticipated numbers and in some cases slightly surpassed projections.

 

The district is making efforts to become a "magnet" and attract outside students with a newly rolled out coding program.   

 

"In the future, coding is going to be the ABCs of the modern world and I believe that students should control technology and technology should not control them," he said.

 

He added that he hopes this along with new STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) programming will attract students and help improve performance throughout the district.