We finally made it happen!

12/9/2012

1 Comment

 
It has taken us nearly a year of collecting information and checking our numbers many times before we were able to present this information to our communities.  We are hoping that school choice becomes a priority for all parents and that we all may come together to discover the many exciting opportunities with creating a NEW independent school!  
1 Comment
Maureen Gannon
1/30/2013 11:40:43 pm

What will happen to special needs funding.? Title 1 Funds can be accessed by independent schools , but special ed funds cannot. See:
http://education.vermont.gov/new/pdfdoc/pgm_sped/laws/educ_sped_guide.pdf pg. 111

We have a large special needs population in our school. What will happen to those kids?

School choice is no panacea. As a parent who sacrificed to pay for private school for my children while paying my taxes, I find it odd that some residents think they should be able to send their kids to Sharon Academy and have their neighbors pay for it, and to do so on the backs of our neediest families and special-needs children who have no real choices.

The truth is that a public school in another town or a private school does not have to accept our children, and a receiving district can choose or their open slots the kids that will be easiest to educate or the kids who will not adversely affect a district's NECAP scores. One or two students can adversely affect data in small districts, and the districts know that. High achieving students will have choice.

Even for high-achieving students, enrollment can also depend on how parents present themselves. In an article in Boston Magazine about the best private schools in the area and how kids get admitted, the headmaster of my daughter's independent school, warned prospective parents that sometimes the admission committee would be very favorably disposed toward a candidate but "did not want the parents" who seemed to be too aggressive or pushy.

My husband was an administrator in a lower income school district Massachusetts. One special needs student with low MCAS scores moved to an apartment in the next town which was a suburb with very high scores. That school district basically refused to take the child without a big fight which the parents could not afford, and they were then dependent on advocates. The school district kept demanding more and more documentation and successfully kept the child out until after the date when his score would have been considered that town's responsibility by the state.

The Rochester school offers small classes and good support to each child. Most classes are as small as private school classes. I have been subbing, and I have sat in on a number of classes. I was very impressed.

We need to think about what we are giving up as a community to provide perks to our least needy students on the backs of our most needy students. We could be left with a school full of special needs children with no special needs funding and children who are not accepted elsewhere. As more towns go this way, this kind of stratification will happen because the public and indepenedent schools considered to be best will fill up first and will be able to choose their students

Maureen Gannon

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