Supt: Board Should Consider School Choice

Grafton should consider the possibility of accepting a limited number of school choice students for the 2012-2013 school year, Superintendent of Schools Jay Cummings has proposed.

He recommended that the School Committee look at the option, which is one possibile revenue source. The final decision would made by the committee, which has until May to decide whether to go in this direction.

Providing 60 openings through school choice could bring in $300,000 to the district, according to a proposal scheduled to be discussed tonight at the School Committee meeting, to be held at 7 p.m. at .

The opening a new, expanded and the subsequent availability of a school building provides room for the added students, Cummings said. Grafton would receive $5,000 per choice student, based on the current funding formulas.

Based on this proposal, the district should only offer openings in grade levels projected to fall below recommended class sizes, he said. That would add up to 10 seats in grades 1, 4, 5, 6, 8 and 9.

Based on this scenario, school choice would not be offered in grades 2, 3, 10, 11 and 12.

Ninth grade can be particularly appealing for school choice, he said, because some students leave the Grafton schools at that level to pursue vocational education or private schooling, Cummings said.

Ninth grade is also a natural grade level for students to make changes, which might make it more palatable for parents in other districts to consider moving their students into Grafton, he said.

Of area school districts, school choice is offered in at least some grades in Auburn, Leicester, Mendon/Upton, Northbridge, Oxford, Shrewsbury, Uxbridge and Westborough.

Hopkinton and Millbury do not offer school choice.