Why is enrollment declining in Rappahannock County public schools?
Commentary and Analysis
By James P. Gannon
The question posed in the headline above is fundamental to charting a future course for the public schools of the county. Yet, curiously, in covering uncounted hours of School Board meetings and budget work sessions in the past 18 months, I have not yet heard any board member ask that obvious question.
The loss of student population in the schools is undeniable and is expected to continue. Combined enrollment of the county’s elementary and high schools in fall 2003 was 1,041. It fell to 1,002 in fall 2006, to 941 last fall, and is projected by the school budget to decline to 902 in the coming year.
That’s a loss of 13.4% of student population in five years, with the decline especially steep in the past year. Why is the county’s public school system dwindling away? In counties all around Rappahannock, student population is increasing.
Of course, there’s a blessing in declining school enrollment, in that Rappahannock does not face pressure to build new classrooms, hire more teachers, and raise property taxes to finance all that–but there’s a danger, too.
At what point does Rappahannock County High School, which currently counts 391 students (and that includes five grades, from 8 through 12) become too small to sustain sports and special academic programs that attract only a portion of the dwindling student body? With overhead costs of facilities, staff, transportation and administration spread over fewer and fewer students, the cost-per-student of educating children becomes alarmingly high–over $13,000 for the coming school year, based on projected enrollment.
But come back to the first question: Why is enrollment falling?
Is the cause simply the shifting demographics of Rappahannock County–a decline in younger families with school-age children and an increase in households of retirees, empty-nesters and weekenders in second homes?
If enrollment decline is being driven purely by demographic trends, then there’s little the school system or the county can do about it. Demography is destiny, they say, and if that’s what is at work here, then the fate of the school system is fixed for the foreseeable future.
But are other factors beyond demographics at work? Are some families deciding to move their children from Rappahannock public schools to private schools, to home-schooling, or to public schools in other counties? If that is the case, the School Board and the school administration must find out why such decisions are being made, and what could be done about it.
The School Board has shown little interest in getting the answers to these questions. Maybe the members think they know the answers, from anecdotal evidence. But guessing at the answers isn’t good enough.
If I were a member of the School Board (current members will shudder at the thought), I would ask to have an independent, outside consultant or survey firm to do a thorough study of the reasons for the enrollment decline. Every family that has moved a child out of county public schools to another school in the past three years should be contacted and asked for reasons for that decision.
Without knowing whether the enrollment decline is purely demographics, or some perceived weaknesses in the county’s schools, or other unknown reasons, the School Board cannot perform its duty of charting a future course for Rappahannock schools.
One of the major recommendations of the recent “Efficiency Review” of Rappahannock schools by MGT of America, Inc., was that the board and administration must develop “an enrollment-based staffing plan.” The report said: “The school division does not have a comprehensive staffing plan on which to base personnel decisions in light of declining school enrollment…..there is no comprehensive plan with standards for adjusting staffing levels, or for justifying existing staffing levels.”
In other words, the School Board is flying blind. Without knowing why enrollment is falling, it’s impossible to chart the future and staff the school for the realities to come.
This is not a question the School Board can avoid. In the real economy, if a business is losing its customers and doesn’t find out why, or doesn’t adjust its operation to fit changed reality, it’s not likely to stay viable for long.
It may be that public schools operate somewhere outside the real economy–as they are constitutionally mandated and can’t go out of business (can they?), but there will be real and unpleasant economic consequences for taxpayers, school staff and the quality of education, if the causes of the enrollment decline go unexamined.
The School Board needs to start asking more questions, and getting answers.
-- James P. GannonComments
Comment from GregRushford
Time: May 14, 2008, 3:43 am
These are exactly the right questions — basic oversight questions that should have been obvious for every member of the school board. Would it now be naive to expect that this will be a wake-up call for these elected officials? Congratulations for a fine, thoughtful report.
–Greg Rushford
Comment from nolp
Time: May 15, 2008, 7:17 am
As a young adult, fresh out of the army and just graduated, I went to teach in a small New England prep school. Enrollment varied between 200 - 250 students in grades 8 through 12. We offered two and sometimes three sports a season, maintained (sometimes!) an 80 acre campus, offered four foreign languages, etc. Most all the teachers were involved with extra curricular activities. We presented three plays a year - including the first stage production of “Lord of the Flies”. We had no endowment. Somehow we offered an extensive scholarship program.
Of course we were also not subject to all the mandates of the state. Our students were probably self-selecting as well. I remember a few geniuses, but also a number who were right in the middle, who seem to have turned out remarkably well as citizens. Probably very much like our own student population.
The richness of a school is not measured by the amount of money it receives from tax payers or tuition, nor its endowment, but rather by its graduates and how effectively they meet life for themselves and their community; whether it instills the tools for lifelong learning; whether the graduates appreciate the diversity, complexity and richness of humankind and embrace all of that in their own lives.
Ours is a community of get richness - people from all walks of life, divergent skills, incredible backgrounds. Many, I am sure, would be willing to share their skills with students - if only they were asked. So we lose half a French teacher … is their no one in the community who would be willing to take up the slack?
With the exception of a core group of parents, we citizens support the schools only with our taxes. How about a data-base of skills the school could draw upon? Of course, the school administration and teachers would have to change as well. It would involve going well-beyond the test based education now offered. Perhaps the school should become quasi-private, and get away from some of the mandates.
Somehow we need to think beyond the norms and use our collective skills for OUR students in this new century. We have a County that is small enough to create such an example and skilled enough to support it.
Just some thoughts….
Nol Putnam
Comment from kandbtreanor
Time: May 15, 2008, 1:42 pm
I’m glad this issue has been raised - it is important to our future as a viable community.
I’ve watched sadly each year as property values have escalated to the point where lower and middle income families can no longer afford to buy or build a home here. How many of us living here could afford to buy or build now?
I’ve also watched as a few wonderful students have been driven from our schools by the excessive requirements of frequent high-stakes testing. Each student is pre-tested through predictor tests to learn if students will need special remediation. Then they are tested again. Our public schools must jump through these hoops to maintain funding and to satisfy community members and parents.
Perhaps these students have special gifts in writing or music or science and want to investigate those fields in a much free-er environment. So they and their parents have chosen independent schools where funding and accreditation are not tied to test results.
I’ve also known wonderful successes - a student whose immediate family members are missing and/or incarcerated - who will be the first of her family to go on to college next year. Special needs students who leave the high school with skills to make an independent life for themselves. And over the years, hundreds of regular kids like mine who will be heading off to college or other training to become good contributors to their communities.
As a community we are charged with educating all our students. If we could do this and at the same time loosen the straps of state & federal requirements for testing, that would be wonderful - and very worthy of investigation. School Board members have investigated the creation of quasi charter schools, but the state requirements and challenges are no less formidable.
I’m heartened by Nol’s suggestion of tapping into the vast experience of many of our residents. Our three sons fondly remember the days he spent in their classrooms, speaking about history and other subjects.
We have the huge benefit of having a small school system. Even though it is a bureaucracy with lots of people of varying views, there are many values on which we can all agree. Couldn’t we pull together a taskforce to investigate the answers to the questions posed by this discussion and move forward in a cooperative and constructive manner.
Kathryn Treanor
Comment from chris
Time: May 16, 2008, 11:53 am
A web search using the term “rural gentrification” will reveal many academic publications on this subject.
–Chris Moyles
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