BUCKLAND — Overall student enrollment for the nine-town Mohawk school district dropped by 22 students, according to the opening day student records, with the greatest enrollment decrease at the middle school/high school level. Total enrollment is 922, down from 944 last school year.
Grade 7 through 12 enrollment dropped by 36 students, while elementary school enrollment increased by 14 students.
Of the 36 secondary students who left Mohawk, 21 enrolled in vocational/technical schools, which is consistent with past years’ history. Of the remaining 15 students who left, six moved out of the area, three were moved by the state Department of Children and Families; five enrolled in private school and three school-choiced to area public schools. That makes 38 students leaving Mohawk’s middle- and high schools. However, Mohawk gained a tuition student from Vermont and regained a student who had gone to Four Rivers Charter School last year.
Enrollment for Buckland Shelburne Elementary School has grown this year, from 275 last year to 305. Superintendent Michael Buoniconti said the school’s maximum capacity is 350. “If this trend continues, we may need to revisit the move of the sixth grade to Mohawk,” he said.
Also, Colrain Central has received 14 new school-choice students, “which is extremely unusual,” said Buoniconti. “We’re tracking interest in Colrain’s Service Learning Curriculum, hoping for similar growth like Hawlemont, following its introduction of the HAY (Hawlemont, Agriculture and You) Program.” The Service Learning, he said, is a project-based curriculum with an emphasis on community service.
Mohawk School Committee Chairwoman Martha Thurber said a brief survey will be sent to parents of students who have left the district and to those who are new to the district “so we can find out more about why students are coming or going.”
The revenue generated from students who school-choice into Mohawk from other districts just about equals the sum Mohawk pays for its students who leave by school choice or as tuition students.
Last school year, Mohawk received $822,689 from the $5,000 per student school-choice students, special education out-of-district students and tuitioned students for about 92 students. That same school year, Mohawk spent $810,661 to send 96 Mohawk students to other schools, mostly as school choice students. Many of Mohawk’s school choice students attended Rowe Elementary School, Hawlemont and Frontier Regional High School. The number of Mohawk students attending those schools were: Hawlemont, 24 students; Rowe, 17 and Frontier, 15.