If open enrollment comes to pass, John White said his town could benefit from students who live elsewhere coming to its schools. Chichester’s small class sizes attract families to the town, and students’ reading, math and literacy scores are steadily increasing.
If state lawmakers choose to allow students to attend any public school in the state, regardless of the town they live in, White believes Chichester is well-positioned to gain more students — and revenue — than it loses.
“Some will be winners and some will be losers,” White said at the annual school district meeting on Saturday. “Chichester is actually a pretty good town.”
The district, which includes Chichester Central School and sends teenagers to Pembroke Academy, voted to adopt an open-enrollment program. Residents set the limit of students they’ll welcome into their schools at five, and set the limit of students who can leave to zero.
“This is more about financial stability because when we build our budget, create our budget, we’re counting on the number of students that we currently have sitting in front of us,” Superintendent Jack Finley said. “So, if students leave and we don’t account for five students leaving or 10 students leaving … that’s community taxes that would be paying another school district.”
That vote could soon be irrelevant if lawmakers mandate universal open enrollment.
As a financial safety net — in case state law steamrolls the town’s vote and Chichester ends up losing students to other schools — residents also established a new tuition trust fund. With up to $20,000 in surplus funds authorized to be saved there next year, it would provide a financial cushion.
When a student participates in open enrollment, the school district where they live must pay 80% of its per-pupil cost to the school district that receives that student, the Supreme Court ruled last year.
Finley said that for Chichester, that’d be roughly $20,000 per student, which the trust fund could help offset instead of raising more money through taxes. Whether open enrollment is enacted or not, the trust fund could also be used to supplement the district’s tuition payments to Pembroke Academy.
Roughly 80 voters on Saturday easily approved a slight increase to the school district’s $8.5 million budget. It’s up 2.87% from the current year, with the tax rate set to rise by 96 cents per $1,000 of assessed property value, or $384 for a $400,000 home.
Employee benefits and transportation costs rose. In special education, staff salaries increased with a union contract, though total special education spending will go down due to fewer placements anticipated next year.
Voters approved all other warrant articles, except for one that asked taxpayers for $7,000 to purchase and operate a recording system for the school district’s public meetings. Chichester already livestreams its meetings and people said they like the idea of having more transparency by publishing recordings online, but they wanted a cheaper or no-cost option.