Every year the Mendon Upton School Committee needs to affirm via vote to continue to accept choice students. Superintendent Dr. Maruszczak said, “This is something that has been in place for quite some time with success. Last school year we accepted about 131 students, we will be at around that number with a slight increase this year.”
The majority of the students come from Uxbridge, the district does see large numbers from Bellingham, Milford and Hopedale. Most of the students are choosing the Mendon Upton District based on the offerings and the quality of offerings.
Upton School Committee Member Grace Maneri wanted to know if there were any downsides to being a choice district.
Dr. Maruszczak replied “It’s a delicate balancing act as you don’t want to rely on ‘choice’ being a major source of revenue.” This district is looking at 131 (or more) students choosing Mendon Upton with roughly 40 students choosing to leave for another district. Dr. Maruszczak said, “We do fairly well with our net choice dollars. We are in the ball park of about 400k. For the most part it’s a positive; you just have to pay attention to the balance.”
The Principal of each school in the district determines if there is room for choice students. According to Dr. M, “They have the best handle on what their class sizes are at every level. Typically we have the most room at the high school. For a few years both Clough and Memorial had to say no frequently. The middle school is a mixed bag, where there is room in some grades but not others. It varies. Things have gotten better in our district. We are seeing an influx of additional students.”
The Mendon Upton School Committee unanimously voted to continue to accept school choice students.
UPTON DAILY 