KENT, Conn. — The possibility of cooperative arrangements with other school districts was discussed when Jen Duncan, chairman of the Board of Education, recently met with the Board of Finance.
It was suggested that school enrollment could be boosted by accepting students from other towns such as neighboring Sherman.
Duncan said she had not explored that concept but foresaw logistical problems. “I don’t know what happens if we are talking about towns outside of Region 1,” she said.
The Region 1 School District, the first to be formed east of the Hudson River, was established in 1939 with Salisbury, Canaan, Falls Village, Sharon, Cornwall and Kent as its member towns. The district shares costs for Housatonic Valley Regional High School, Pupil Services (special education) and the Regional School Services Center (central office). A single superintendent serves all seven schools.
Each member town pays its portion of the Region 1 budget, which includes the high school, RSSC, and Pupil Services, based on the proportion of students it sends to the high school.
“If other towns were to enter the district, the Region 1 towns would have to vote for it,” observed Finance Chair Nancy Odea Wyrick.
Some regions accept students from other towns as tuition students, such as Region 7, which serves some students from Harwinton and Torrington. Norfolk and Colebrook, which have minuscule enrollments in their individual elementary schools, are again weighing the possibility of a merger or a cooperative agreement.
But Duncan noted that for a town to formally enter the Region 1 district, the General Assembly would be required to change its charter.
First Selectman Marty Lindenmayer, a former chairman of the board of education, said the issue was discussed during his time on the school board.
“We looked at it hard,” he reported, “but if you want a cautionary tale, look at what is going on in Litchfield.”
When the Litchfield and Wamogo high schools were merged to form Region 20, it was a bumpy road, indeed. Even before the school opened last fall, a $1.7 million deficit was discovered in its budget, money designated for, among other things, 11 positions at the new Lakeview High School. The superintendent resigned before the first school day and longtime coaches were disgruntled at losing positions.
Odea Wyrick said she believes that in the face of falling enrollments, more and more regions will consolidate, however. “And I think you will see small, stand-alone, districts joining regions,” she said.
Board of Finance members expressed concern about why students are leaving Kent Center School when they reach the upper grades.
Duncan noted that Kent has three private schools within its borders and said she believes the families of instructors experienced private education themselves and put their children in private schools when they reach an appropriate age.
A relatively small proportion of Kent Center School students go on to the regional high school.
She said she would try to determine why parents are taking their kids out of KCS.
“We ask and some families grant us the information,” she said. “One family said their student needed services that were not available at KCS, and they took both their children out to keep them in the same school system.”
Some of the number reductions resulted from the Covid crisis, she added. There was an influx of families moving out the city when the pandemic struck, boosting KCS’s numbers.
“Those numbers dropped as people moved back to the city,” she said. “Every year we lose a handful to families that move. A decent percentage of the number is because of a move.”
The school educates 194 students in Pre-K through grade 8, with a student-teacher ratio of 7:1.
What kinds of services are not available to older KCS students? The KCS website lists an enrichment teacher for grades K-2. Does enrichment not exist for grades 3 and up? The private schools in Kent are for grades 9-12. That doesn’t explain the attrition for the middle school grades at KCS.
Also, regarding enrollment from other towns, doesn’t Kent Center School currently allow tuition students from other towns? This discussion about adding towns to Region 1 is confusing. Are they talking about tuition for students that don’t live in Kent?
Per the Region 1 student registration website: “Out-of-District families interested in having their child/children attend a Region 1 school should contact the enrollment school for more information.”
However, the information is not readily available on the KCS website, though a search through Republican-American archives from March 2022 noted:
“In 2019, the Kent school board voted to reduce the tuition from $11,000 to $4,500 to attract more students” though it reported that “no tuition has been collected in several years.” What is the current out-of-district tuition? Is it being collected? Enrollment reportedly increased from 194 students to 200 students from 2019 to 2021. Class sizes increased from between 7 to 13 students to a range of 9 to 16 students during that time.
Additionally, due to the state’s new Sept. 1 birthday cutoff for starting kindergarten, which went into effect this school year, the 2024-25 kinder class only has 12 students (only 8 months worth of birthdays). This cohort year will continue to be small, across the state. What are other schools and districts–regional or otherwise–doing about staffing to address this small cohort as it progresses through grades?
Perhaps KCS and the BOE can learn from Finland and “loop” their teachers. In Finland, teachers follow their students for up to six years as they move through grade levels. This has been shown to allow teachers to specialize in their students, improves attendance, and increases learning outcomes.
They already accept out of town students unknown amount paid, deals made without approval from taxpayers board of selectman. Now the board of finance wants more students from out of town, regional grammar school has been talked about for years, time to consider it, vote out these crazy tax spenders on the boards. Thank you