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Dr. David Hopson |
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May 5, 2008 The most perplexing question that arises during presentations on the school budget is why families elect to school choice out of district. I’m sure that this question surfaces from several perspectives—financial, safety, shrinking enrollment, concerns about the efficacy of the district, and desired insights into potential shortfalls of the district being just some of the potential reasons for asking. It’s likely that this question is also asked in the home districts of our in-coming school choice students. Over the past five years, the district has reduced the number of students choicing out while increasing students coming into the district. The bottom line is that we still have slightly more students leaving than coming into the district and we need to continue to review and work on this issue. The district has done ‘exit’ interviews with families that have left the district over many years. The information from these families shows that there are many reasons why students leave. Many of these reasons are easy to document—to play a sport we don’t offer, to be closer to where their parents work, to participate in some type of specialized program; while others are based more on perceptions—the new school is more rigorous, offers more choices, or is better for some other combination of reasons. These same reasons are also why many of our incoming school choice students opt to attend Gateway from neighboring communities, leaving one to wonder just how different the schools actually are. We are preparing to undertake a school marketing campaign to counter some of the advertisements from other area schools. I believe that Gateway offers a competitive educational environment and also has many characteristics that allow us to be unique. Gateway has the traditional advantages of smaller schools—staff know their students individually, teacher/student ratios are very advantageous, a caring and positive school climate is evident and there is a great deal of community involvement in the schools. When we consider our recent expansion and renovation program, we find we have outstanding facilities—safe, technologically advanced, clean, roomy and environmentally sound. Add to this some of our advantages—we’ve been a model school for school safety for many years, we’ve got a stable and highly qualified staff, we individualize high school opportunities through distance learning and college dual-enrollment, and offer many Advanced Placement classes. We were recently scored as having the best one-to-one computer program in the state and we are a model school of technology that has been recognized both in Massachusetts and nationally. Our high school was recognized for making great strides in MCAS scores and has continued to meet all MCAS requirements, recently earning full accreditation status with no warning areas. We’re in the process of completing a research based revision of our mathematics and English language programs in our elementary and middle schools, we have an award-winning playwright program established with The Chester Theatre, we have opportunities for students in the middle and high schools to work on maintaining laptop computers and we continue to support the education of the whole child, providing art, music, physical education, extra-curricular activities and many field trips as part of the classroom and general educational process. I’m often asked by community members who are familiar with the school and our student successes why anyone would elect to leave the district to go somewhere that has more problems, larger class sizes and not many additional opportunities. I can’t answer that question, but I’m guessing that part of it is that people don’t recognize the jewel that they have in their own backyard. We each have to make decisions for our children that we believe is in their best interest and those decisions may vary from family to family. I know that the decision to have my children stay in the district has been beneficial and continues to prove to be the right one. As I talk with Gateway graduates and parents whose students have also gone on to prestigious schools, I hear the same thing: Gateway has done a great job of preparing our students for their future endeavors. While I am proud of the district, our staff and our students, and believe we have a great district, we continue to strive to improve—perhaps the most important aspect in any endeavor and the one item guaranteeing continued success and future growth.
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