WARWICK — Before the Warwick Community School opened its doors as an independent school in 2023, Superintendent Carole Learned-Miller knew she wanted to share its education with students outside the small town.
“We feel we’ve created an exceptional model and, for me, there’s a moral imperative to share this model of what public education could be like with the largest number of students,” Learned-Miller said.
But Massachusets General Laws Chapter 76, Section 12B proved to be a hurdle in the way.
According to the superintendent, state law requires Warwick to pay $18,500 for those students that go to Ralph C. Mahar Regional School, Pioneer Valley Regional School and other secondary schools after they graduate from sixth grade, the last grade level at Warwick Community School.
This is unaffordable for Warwick, Learned-Miller and Warwick School Committee Chair Diana Noble stressed.
School Choice is a program allowing students to attend public schools outside their home district, subject to available space and district participation.
For the past few years, Learned-Miller and the Warwick School Committee have joined other small schools to demand a change.
Superintendents, school committees, parents, teachers and students at Warwick Community School, R.H. Conwell Elementary School in Worthington, Hancock Central School and Richmond Consolidated School have submitted written testimony for H.4867, “An Act Relative to School Choice,” to correct the issue by exempting school districts that only teach preschool to sixth grade from paying these same rates.
Representatives from these schools recently spoke at the State House for the bill’s hearing.
“This is such an equity issue,” R.H. Conwell Elementary School Superintendent Gretchen Morse-Dobosz said. “If School Choice is supposed to be for all districts, we should be able to participate.”
School Choice students account for 14 of R.H. Conwell Elementary School’s 78 students. If the House of Representatives does not follow the state Senate’s lead and pass the bill, Morse-Dobosz expects the Worthington School Committee will decide to no longer accept School Choice students.
In Warwick, the elementary school started accepting School Choice students this year after negotiating a new tuition agreement with Mahar that would only require Warwick to pay $5,000 per School Choice student that moves on to attend Mahar. Learned-Miller said a similar tuition agreement with a $5,000 rate is also in the works with Pioneer.
“I had found a way, but at the same time, I believed that this flaw should be changed,” Learned-Miller said. “Even if we found a solution for Warwick, I wanted to fix it for the state.”
Learned-Miller and Morse-Dobosz stressed that accepting School Choice students not only secures funding for the school to pay its faculty, but also boosts the diversity in classrooms. In Worthington, School Choice seats also welcome parents to the district who are “dedicated” to supporting its mission.
“Especially in a small school like ours and a small rural school, accepting choice families that are choosing to come to our school really creates a sense of community,” Morse-Dobosz said.
Noble said the Warwick School Committee is “strongly in support” of the bill.
“Our town resident students benefit immensely from the richness and diversity that come from welcoming their peers from nearby communities,” reads the Warwick School Committee’s written testimony on H.4867. “Families from nearby towns want reliable access to School Choice options.”
Laura Fries, a parent in Northfield whose children attended Warwick Community School, also wrote testimony for the bill in February.
“School Choice allowed my family to keep our kids in the public school system and allowed them to thrive,” Fries wrote. “The current School Choice law disadvantages rural schools in the western part of the state in particular, by refusing to recognize our unique needs. This issue is larger than just my family and larger than Warwick Community School — this is an issue of rural equity.”