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Jen,

That may very well be what they're attempting but it's a dangerous road to take because the City Council does have the final say in committing taxpayer monies to that. I don't remember the actual numbers of kids who leave the district after grade 8 or 9. I'd be less concerned with the percentages than the actual numbers of students, though. Having said that, the current K-6 enrollments still show a decline. As you know our decline is more a function of changing demographics - the same ones that plague the state - we're getting older and the young-to-old alance will continue to tip. RI is losing population and Warwick has one of the lrger population drops in the last Census as well. All school demographic data is done by NESDEC, who also did Pawtucket's numbers. The committee used their data that goes out to 2023. NESDEC says that the 1-5 year projections are more accurate than the 6 years and beyond data but, historically, they've been accurate to within 1 - 1.5% so i have faith in those numbers. Those weren't Administration-derived numbers either. My advocacy of all day K and middle is not primarily to have more kids stay (or come back) in our schools - I'm pretty sure that, historically, the number of kids who go private in the elementarty years has been very steady - but rather to give our kids who are here a better education. If that brings in more kids then fine. I don;t know how you'd quantify how many could potentially come back except to take the number that we know are not here and pick a %. Those two things by themselves won't bring kids back - results will and until we stop being in the middle of the pack performance wise (when we have among the highest per pupil expenditures), we could have all brand new, shiny buildings and that won;t change much. Again, the current recommendation deals with declining enrollment and excess capacity at the secondary level that has never - never - been addressed. This 5 year plan, in my view, can stand on its own and does not have to be part of the 15-20 year plan. Once this is implemented, then we can look 15+ years down the road and I disagree with those who say that this can't be done without it being part of a much longer term plan that would take years to develop - all while our populations continue to decline. ANd, I'd add, that in all likelihood, the City will continue to level fund the schools. (The city does have some legal mechanisms that allow them to actually reduce their funding and part of the justtification for it is declining enrollment.) We seem to be letting the 'perfect be the enemy of the good' here...

From: Comprehensive long-term school plan needed

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