After spending more than 10 years and hitting roadblocks while trying to find the best way to replace aging elementary schools and redistrict others, Westfield educators thought they had finally found the perfect solution.
But midway through finalizing the complex process to replace the Abner Gibbs and Franklin Avenue schools with one building, they realized they had to make another big change to the plans.
The original project called for a 600-student school, said School Superintendent Stefan Czaporowski. We abandoned the project and we submitted to (the state) a 400-kid school because we were seeing declining enrollment.
As enrollment shrinks in schools across the state, educators are searching for creative solutions and are sometimes faced with making difficult choices, especially in the wake of losing the state and federal funds which are based on student population.
Several are using empty classrooms to offer free preschool and others are trying to collaborate with nearby districts to offer programs and classes they cannot do alone.
You will have to struggle with balanced budgets as student numbers decline. It is the educational story since the beginning of time, said Glenn Koocher, executive director for the Massachusetts School Committees Association.
Statewide enrollment started dropping in 2018 following an about eight-year period where student numbers stayed steady. But when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, student numbers plummeted, showing an approximately 37,000-pupil decline which has barely changed when schools returned to full-time, in-person classes.
The loss of students has been attributed to a combination of factors. Some families left the public schools for home-schooling and some headed to private schools, which stayed open when public schools closed. Census figures also show low birth rates, shrinking immigration numbers and families moving to less-expensive states all contributing to the loss.
Massachusetts school funding is primarily based on a per-pupil allotment every school district receives so the higher number of students, the more state and local funding it receives. Under the new Student Opportunity Act schools also receive additional money to educate children who are considered high needs because they are poor, have learning disabilities or are learning English.
The Massachusetts Department of Education has a hold harmless aid policy which means money will not be subtracted immediately in the case of a large one-year decline which especially comes into play after a charter school opens within that district. That gives educators time to plan, but the money does not stay forever if enrollment does not rebound.
Staffing cuts are inevitable in districts with falling enrollments, but in many cases cutting jobs, even through attrition, is difficult since reductions are usually spread out over different grade levels and schools, Koocher said.
If two or three kids leave the class you may not be able to eliminate teachers, Koocher said. Closing a school is very hard to pull off. No one wants to lose their school. People lose elections based on decisions like that.
The declines are especially hitting the smaller and spread-out rural districts hard. Unlike in previous years, Koocher said the one solution state officials do not seem to be pushing is regionalization or joining districts together under one school system.
Westfields enrollment had already been shrinking by more than 100 students a year and then the COVID-19 pandemic hit and it declined by more than 330 students. Studies show that decline is expected to continue for at least five more years before it plateaus, Czaporowski said.
The official student population of 4,836 for the 2022-23 school year has inched up since its lowest numbers during the height of the pandemic, but it is still lower than the pre-COVID 5,261 total tallied Oct. 1, 2019 and far lower than the nearly 6,000 Westfield Public students of a decade ago, he said.
It made sense to reduce the size of the new school when studies showed all the space wouldnt be needed, but finding other solutions isnt that easy, Czaporowski said.
The problem is kids dont come in boxes of 20, he said, adding the loss of students is spread over multiple schools and grade levels so, for now, Westfield cannot reduce teachers and assistant teachers.
Westfield has tried creating a virtual school as one way to avoid losing students who found remote learning an attractive option during the COVID-19 pandemic either because they excelled academically or have health issues.
Even though enrollment inched up during the last school year, at least half of the new students are immigrants from Ukraine, Afghanistan and a multitude of other countries. They often do not speak English and have gaps in their education so they need extra help. At the same time, the number of student who have high needs increased to 58%. Any student in the high-needs category falls into at least two subgroups, such as low-income, learning disabled and learning English.
We had to add staff because of the number of (special needs) and (English language learners), Czaporowski said.district2022-232021-222020-212019-20State913,735911,529911,465948,828Springfield23,72123,79924,23925,007Chicopee6,7106,7966,8507,268Holyoke4,9435,1025,1535,350Westfield4,8364,7744,9315,261West Springfield3,8683,8513,9134,090Greenfield1,4461,6041,5451,718
Springfield has seen the biggest drops among the youngest students. Its official student population declined nearly 1,400 students in three years and is now 23,721 at the start of this school year. There are now about 200 fewer children each in preschool, kindergarten and first grade than there were two years ago.
Educator staffing at each school is tied directly to student enrollment at the school. A decrease in the student body automatically translates to a decrease in teaching staff, Azell Murphy Cavaan, spokeswoman for Springfield schools, said.
Springfield has not had to cut positions yet. Instead, it has been able to take advantage of the decrease of nearly 2,000 pupils over five years to create smaller class sizes and add programming for students with learning disabilities, she said.
It is also taking advantage of the extra classroom space to expand free early childhood education so children, especially those from families who cannot afford daycare and rely on family members and others for babysitting, have an opportunity to attend a quality preschool and are better prepared for kindergarten, Cavaan said.
Springfield and Chicopee school officials are using federal pandemic recovery grants known as ESSER funds and a boost from the Student Opportunity Act that provides extra money for students considered high needs to help pay for the new programs.
In September, Chicopee also launched free preschool at two neighborhood schools where there is space Belcher School and Fairview Elementary now have two classes for 3- and 4-year-olds each. Preschool is also being offered for free at Szetela Early Childhood School, where families previously paid to go.
Next year we will redraw lines and look at other buildings for preschool, Assistant Superintendent Matthew Francis said. Our goal is to have a preschool class in every building.
The schools do receive about $4,500 from the state for each free preschool student, which is less than half of the about $10,000 it receives for students in grades K-12. That means the free preschool will cost an additional $2.5 million, some of which is being paid for with federal COVID recovery money, which will run out in 2024.
We are running it as a loss but in the long run it will help, Francis said.
Studies show students who attend quality preschool graduate at a higher rate and students with learning disabilities are usually diagnosed younger and receive help earlier so they need fewer services as they advance, he said.
Chicopee is getting older and we asked, how do I entice young families to come to Chicopee and stay in Chicopee? Francis said. We do have a need for it.
Belcher School Principal Samuel arlin is one of the few city administrators who tried adding preschool a decade ago when he was principal of Chicopees Patrick E. Bowe School and had a spare classroom. At the time, a bus that once went to the citys Szetela Early Childhood Center had been discontinued and many parents in the neighborhood did not have a car to get their children to preschool.
Karlin said he recruited children whose families had no other preschool options and said those 4-year-olds easily moved to kindergarten the following year with an expanded vocabulary, better social skills and already knowing school routines and teachers. It was hard to statistically prove if students did better long-term academically. The program eventually ended because enrollment increased and the classroom space was no longer available.
I think everyone needs preschool. It will put those kids heads above everyone else, Karlin said, adding the preschoolers will come from the Belcher district so those children should easily graduate to kindergarten next year as they did in Bowe School.
Smaller, rural districts in places like Franklin and Berkshire counties are especially being hit by enrollment declines. While there is not the same push to consolidate districts as there has been in the past, William Cameron said he believes that will be the answer.
Cameron, chairman of the Pittsfield School Committee who has also served as the superintendent or interim superintendent of at least four school districts across the state, said he has seen dramatic declines in nearly all school districts, with the exception of two of the most wealthy ones that have accepted more school choice students.
In Pittsfield population has declined by one-third and it had declined more in really small towns, he said. The smaller the district, the bigger the problem, especially at the secondary level.
Along with receiving less state money, small school districts are at a disadvantage because do not have the number of students to offer a wider variety of courses, he said.
In 2015, a group of people set up the Berkshire County Educational Task Force, which was later changed to the Berkshire Educational Resources, to study ways to combat enrollment declines. In 2017 the group recommended a single secondary school in Berkshire County, a proposal that was rejected, and it is now working to find ways that districts can collaborate to share resources.
The idea of sharing classes through remote learning was prompted by COVID, he said. We are trying to use technology to find ways to share resources.
Under the plan, schools would offer different elective classes that could be shared remotely through eight districts to give students more opportunities.
Logistically it has been more difficult because schools all run on different class schedules. The idea, which started pre-pandemic has been complicated by the fact that many students and teachers learned they do not like remote learning, he said.
Pre-schoolers at the Belcher School in Chicopee enjoy recess on their first day. (Don Treeger / The Republican) 9/8/2022