Despite some concerns voiced about doing so before a budget has been approved, the School Committee approved continuing school choice for the 2025-26 school year because of a state deadline requirement.
In the end, continued participation in school choice was approved on Wednesday, May 21 by a vote of 8-2.
“From a purely financial standpoint – well, maybe not purely financial – what I’m wondering is if, as we in the coming weeks are discussing potential cuts to our district services, whether that would be a disincentive for students to be coming in to us and an incentive for more of our students to leave,” said School Committee member Kara Moser.
“Right now, my main concern iss we do not have a budget,” said Vice Chair Hillary Kniffen, who said she generally opposes school choice.
Massachusetts mandates that each school district is open to school choice unless they vote to opt out. Whitman’s program isn’t grade-specific, but is based on where space is available.
“Unless we close to school choice, any student from any neighboring community can come to our school,” Superintendent of Schools Jeff Szymaniak said, later clarifying that students from any town in the state could attend W-H, so long as they provide their own transportation.
“If we decide to close to all students or close to certain amount of students (grade level-wise, we can do that at School Committee meeting, but that doesn’t mean that a student in W-H can’t go to any other school that’s open to school choice,” he said.
Currently, there are 76 students attending W-H through school choice and there are 50 students from Whitman and Hanson attending school in other public school districts.
Between 2012 and 2015 years, however, W-H’s school choice numbers had increased, and then became stagnant, and now are in decline,
“We’re not getting the kids we were getting in 2012,” Szymaniak said, “We’re just not. … When we publicly come out and say we’re in a budget crisis, people are choosing not to come.”
The number of students accepted at WH, is based on recommendations from the building principals of how many spaces they have available, with sending districts paying a larger portion of costs for students on individualized education plans (IEPs) and picks up the cost for severe IEP situations requiring out-of-district placement.
Per-pupil school choice students cost $5,000 and W-H per-pupil cost is $17,500. Despite the apparent cost differential, Szymaniak said there are expenses, including administrative costs at work there. School choice students bring in funds to help the budget particularly in covering W-H’s own cost of students leaving the district under school choice.
If W-H were to close to school choice students, those already attending W-H are permitted to stay until they graduate and, Szymaniak said, W-H is always open to students who wish to graduate with their class should their families move to neighboring towns.
“When they come here, they are our students,” Chair Beth Stafford said, underscoring Szymaniak’s statement that the district cannot deny the right of a school choice student due to behavior or absences when they come to W-H.
The father of an autistic child said his son would benefit from attending W-H, which he said offers “one of the best special education programs on the entire South Shore.”