Enrollment projected to decline at Winooski high school

By Molly Walsh
Burlington FreePress
June 9, 2006

WINOOSKI -- Forty-nine members of the Winooski High School Class of 2006 are expected to collect diplomas June 17. When they file into the school auditorium, they will as usual represent the smallest graduating class of any public high school in Chittenden County.

This school year, the Spartans enrolled 53 seniors and 241 high school students total, meaning neighboring high schools such as Burlington, Essex and South Burlington are four to six times bigger.

For years, Winooski has accepted the challenges and benefits of education on a small scale. It's the "Cheers" of public schools, where everyone knows your name and everyone can make the varsity teams; but it's also the school that offers no Advanced Placement classes.

Now the 1.2-square-mile city of 6,560 people faces a stark question: Should the high school stay open? Projections suggest Winooski's high school enrollment will drop below 150 by 2013, reducing state per-pupil funding and making it difficult to maintain offerings that already are smaller than those at neighboring public schools.

This summer, the Winooski School Board will study the future of the high school and weigh the options. The city could choose to close the school or form an agreement with a neighboring district and send high school students there. Or the city could establish a tuitioning policy under which students attend the public or private school of their choice, as long as it is not a religious school. The city might also consider turning the high school into a magnet school, a scenario that would be more feasible if Vermont Education Commissioner Richard Cate's recent recommendation for statewide public school choice is successful. Time to talk

Nothing dramatic is likely to happen for a few years, and the final decision will be up to the public, not school administrators, Winooski school Superintendent Bruce Chattman said. But he believes it's time for the community to examine the trends.

"There is no status quo because the population's declining. So the question is how small a school is viable, both from an opportunity point of view for students and from an economic point of view for the community," Chattman said.

Public school enrollment statewide has declined for nine years -- to 96,636 from a peak of 106,341 in 1997 -- as Vermont's birth rate dips and the bulge of baby boomers' children moves through the grades. Winooski's projected declines are most pronounced in the high school population. The School Board is not talking about closing the pre-kindergarten through eighth-grade program.

Students in all the grades go to school in a brick complex of buildings on Normand Street, not far from the downtown of the mill city overlooking Winooski Falls. The burst of condo and apartment construction in Winooski is not expected to generate many schoolchildren, according to consultant Bill Smith of Essex Junction, who does demographic studies for Winooski and many other Vermont school districts. "There's a lot of construction going on in downtown but it's not the type that's going to be increasing the number of families with children."

That means that Winooski High students such as junior Tiffany LaFond will continue to feel lonely on the basketball court. This school year so few people signed up for girls basketball that LaFond was asked to roam the halls to recruit more players. "I was like, 'I don't care if you've ever played,'" she recalled, "'just come play.'"

LaFond landed some additional players, resulting in a junior varsity squad with about five girls and a varsity with seven. The lack of players meant girls who could barely dribble were teamed with girls at the all-star level. "It was a little difficult," LaFond said.

Many teams at the school face player shortages. "For track, there's two guys on the track team. Me and somebody else," said freshman Jim Tye, 14.

Long bus rides for away games are another challenge. Winooski plays most sports in Division III, matched against other small schools. Many of them are far away. This means athletes spend 90 minutes going to Barton when it would take 10 minutes to get to the playing fields at South Burlington. "Sometimes we don't get back until, like, 11 o'clock," said Lwanzo Siriwayo, a 16-year-old junior who plays soccer for Winooski.

Still, the small student body means nobody is cut at tryouts, nor do players languish on the bench -- frustrating experiences that are common at most Chittenden County high schools. Small classes

Just as participation in sports is easier at Winooski, students say participation in class discussions is easier when the average class size is 11 students. "Having small classes lets you participate more and speak up," said Selma Turic, a 16-year-old sophomore.

It's also easy to form bonds with the teachers. "Our teachers are so good," said Keara Mahoney, a 17-year-old senior who will attend Ithaca College in the fall.

Still, many students say Winooski's lack of Advanced Placement classes puts them at a disadvantage. "Colleges are looking for challenging courses, and Winooski doesn't have them to make your transcript look good," LaFond said.

"Bravo," said classmate Siriwayo, nodding in agreement.

For students who have exhausted the Winooski curriculum, the district pays for portions or in some cases all of tuition for classes at local colleges. But students must pass a placement test, get their own rides and try to work the college course around their high school schedule. Other schools, such as South Burlington, Burlington and Colchester, often provide at least 10 free AP courses.

High school Principal Steve Perkins acknowledges that students would have more course offerings at a larger school, but something would be lost, too, he said.

"The kids would lose that individual touch where everybody knows their name. You're not recognized by your ID number here. You're recognized by -- 'You're Johnny Smith, and I had your father in school, too.'"

It's unclear how Winooski's small size affects learning. The district has a higher poverty rate and more immigrant and refugee students than most districts in Vermont: About 54 percent of students in pre-school to 12th grade qualify for free and reduced-price lunch. Nationally, these demographics tend to push test scores down, and to some degree this is true at Winooski High School.

Scores on the state-mandated 10th-grade New Standards Reference Exam in Winooski are mostly below state averages, but not dramatically so. Further, while Winooski has a relatively high drop-out rate, those students who stick around often go to college. Seventy-seven percent of last year's graduates went to college, Perkins said. Students were admitted to a range of schools, from Middlebury to Norwich to the University of Vermont.

Perkins said he believes at-risk students might be more likely to fall through the cracks at a bigger school. "I think given the demographics we have, we have a better chance at helping these kids than they would have going to a larger school."

And what do the kids think? Most of the students interviewed for this story had mixed feelings. Several said they would probably not have chosen Winooski High School if they'd had the option to go to one of the neighboring, bigger public schools in ninth grade. But none of the students wants to see the high school stop graduating seniors.

"It's been here so long," 15-year-old freshman Erin Chastenay said. "It's part of Winooski's history." Contact Molly Walsh at 660-1874 or mwalsh@bfp.burlingtonfreepress.com