Schools show steady enrollment over past 20 years

Sept. 14, 2017 | G. Michael Dobbs
news@thereminder.com



SPRINGFIELD – The second largest school district in the Commonwealth has been surprising consistent in the number of students enrolled from 1997 to the present school years.

That’s what the School Committee heard at its Sept. 7 meeting. Paul Foster shared statistics to show that in 1997-1998 the number of students attending the city’s schools was 24,404. With this school year the number was 25,690.

Foster noted there have been increases in grades 10, 11, and 12 in the years 2012 to 2017 because of efforts to keep ninth graders in school and from dropping out.

He showed the number of ninth graders has grown from 6,397 in 1997 to 7,246 because of retention practices. An additional push into ninth grade has come from home school children entering the school system as well as charter school students.

Charter school students were not counted in this survey, but Foster explained the flatness in the number of students in grades six through eight is accounted in part at least to the charter schools in the city that serve those grades.

The number of students in pre-kindergarten programs has doubled as efforts since 1997 to offer greater educational opportunities for children of that age has increased. Foster explained.

School Superintendent Daniel Warwick said enrollment has been “very, very steady.” He added the school district has “a really problematic ninth grade retention rate.”

Mayor Domenic Sarno, the chair of the School Committee added “cutting edge initiatives” had been developed and employed to address the ninth grade problems.

In other developments, Warwick reported Putnam Vocational Technical Academy has been awarded $682,408 in a Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Allocation Grant. According to the award letter form Gov. Charlie Baker, the grant supports “five key priorities of the Commonwealth … prepares students for college and career; strengthen curriculum and instruction; strengthens educator effectiveness; supports data use to improve policy decisions and student achievement; and helps turn around the lowest performing schools through continuous improvement of career/vocational technical education in Massachusetts.”

Warwick also said Putnam would have a new Junior ROTC program, this time with the Marine Corps. Although an Air Force JROTC had been at the high school for years, Warwick explained changes in curriculum had caused the Air Force to stop the program. He added the Marines proved to be more flexible in scheduling.

Visits to the school nurses for abdominal concerns and hunger have dropped 23 percent from 2014 though the end of the 2016-2017 school year, Warwick said. He noted the “Breakfast in the Classroom” program has made a significant difference in cutting down these visits to the nurse. The number dropped from 2.047 to 1,577 during the time period.

The School Committee also heard from Neville Anglin, the program director for the city’s Tobacco Cessation & Prevention Program about a proposed permit restriction that would not allow any new retailers to carry tobacco products within 500 feet of a school zone. The restriction would not affect any existing retailers and Anglin stressed, “I want to make it clear whoever is there already will not be affected by this.”

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