WESTFIELD – Mayor Daniel M. Knapik said Tuesday that he will request the City Council to return some of the money generated through Westfield Vocational Technical High School tuition back to the school.
“I plan to present legislation to the City Council in January to divert some percentage of the tuition to the shop programs at Voc-Tech,” Knapik said.
WVTHS Director James Laverty said Tuesday that the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education sets the out-of-district tuition rate based on the district’s per student expenditure for vocational education.
This year that out-of-district tuition, paid by other communities sending students to WVTHS, is $13,888 per students. Laverty said there are currently 54 out-of-district students in the vocational programs. There is also a second charge, $4,870, for 10 out-of district students with individual education plans (IEPs), which adds another $48,000 to the tuition number and raising the total out-of-district tuition to nearly $750,000.
Knapik said that tuition money, unlike school choice funding, goes into the city’s general fund.
School Choice funds, paid through a state program for accepting out of district students, remains within the School Department in a dedicated revolving account. The School Choice program applies to all schools in the district, except the city’s vocational school.
Knapik raise the idea of returning a percentage of the vocational school tuition to support the vocational and technical programs during a broader School Committee debate on the use of School Choice funding.
Laverty said the tuition is based on the cost of providing vocational programs.
“The cost of vocational-technical education is 150 percent of the cost of a traditional high school,” Laverty said. “Every shop needs specific materials for the kids, materials used to enable the kids to learn those skills.
“When the school opened the new automotive shop 10 years ago, there was a budget of $12,000 for materials and supplies. This year its down to $6,000, but the need is just as great,” Laverty said.
“It’s the typical budget cycle, things get cut during hard times and are not returned when the economic situation improves,” he said.
Knapik said that he hopes the council will support his proposal to return some of the tuition funding.
“If we could get $100,000 back into the shops, it would be a home run,” Knapik said Tuesday.
