Standing by Gloucester High vo-tech, city mulls regional options

It's being called Gloucester's second charter school.

The proposed super North Shore agricultural-vocational high school, whose leaders are asking for a $2.7 million commitment from the city by December, is dividing local leaders still battling to stop an incoming charter school.

Widely popular in neighboring communities, the proposed new regional vo-tech school is drawing comments like "no good option" and "all bad choices" from some local leaders as they prepare for a City Council public hearing on the subject next Tuesday.

This week, the most extensive analysis of what the new school will mean to Gloucester was released by Superintendent Christopher Farmer, who projects the estimated $1.3 million annual cost of the school to the city will come with little to no opportunity for corresponding cost savings.

Closing Gloucester High School's existing vocational program would be "foolhardy," Farmer said, because it already serves more Gloucester students than the new regional school is expected to do, and absorbing those students would be costly and accompanied by a soaring drop-out rate.

On top of that, the machine, wood, electrical and automotive shops at the north end of the school would be costly to retrofit as conventional classrooms.

With no city or school officials so far expressing any more support for closing the high school programs, the remaining options are to join the new, expanding regional vo-tech school district and absorb the extra cost into an already contracting city budget, or pull out and try to provide a 21st century technical education alone.

Expansion commitment

City Councilor Jason Grow, the facilitator of a debate on the issue at the Budget and Finance Committee on Tuesday, said yesterday he did not support closing the Gloucester High School program to join the new school, but may need a commitment for funding to expand Gloucester High before a vote to abandon North Shore Tech.

"My main concern is that, if the push is to move out of the (regional school) and develop our own programs to be competitive and comprehensive, the administration has to show some commitment to the goal in terms of funding," Grow said. "It's irresponsible to suggest that we would eliminate our own program, disenfranchising the 140 kids currently in GHS to commit solely to the new school."

School Committee member Melissa Teixeira, Gloucester's representative on the North Shore Tech Regional School Committee, said yesterday she supported the new school, but was torn about what the cost could mean for the Gloucester public schools.

"We can't afford this, but we have to do something," Teixeira said. "We have to strive for equity for all students."

The new regional school on the drawing board would accommodate a merger of the North Shore Regional Technical High School and Essex Agricultural High School in a $133.7 million building in Danvers.

The state has agreed to pay more than $100 million of that cost, with the member communities paying the remainder based on their percentage of the school's enrollment.

Rockport on board

So far, Rockport and Danvers have committed to join the school with votes in several other towns expected in the next month.

Of the state's contribution, $77.5 million is coming from the Massachusetts School Building Authority, which has given the school a Dec. 15 deadline to get commitments from communities representing 75 percent of the 2004 enrollment. Gloucester's enrollment makes up around 9 percent of the total, not enough to scuttle the deal if it pulls out alone, but a problem if it could bring one other large city — such as Salem or Peabody — along with it.

Gloucester has shown the most resistance to joining the new regional district — and regional officials, when asked whether any community was as "conflicted," shook their heads.

On Tuesday, Danvers Town Manager Wayne Marquis told the Gloucester Budget and Finance Committee that the proposal was "well received" in Peabody and an acceptance vote from Salem was looking "very favorable."

Gloucester, Peabody and Salem are the only three communities of the 16 proposed to join that have their own internal vocational programs. Marquis said Tuesday that both Salem and Peabody seemed to be leaning toward scaling back their in-house vocational programs, but not eliminating them.

The new school comes with a projected enrollment of 1,440, nearly doubling the combined enrollment of the current North Shore Tech and Essex Aggie schools. Of the new students going to the new school, 30 percent are expected to come from Peabody, which is not now a member of the district.

Gloucester now has 67 students enrolled at the vocational schools and most expect that if the city joins, more will be able to get into the new larger school, but it is unclear how many.

Each student in Massachusetts is entitled to a free vocational education at the expense of their local district and if they don't like what their city or town is providing, can go elsewhere.

Priorities, incentives

The regional district will give students from member communities priority over those from non-member districts, and is estimated to charge non-members $18,722 for each student, compared with $17,542 for members.

If it withdraws from the regional vocational district, it is unclear how many Gloucester students, if any, would make it into the new school, as the old school already has a lengthy waiting list.

Supporters of the new school say it is a rare opportunity in a time of fiscal turmoil to reap millions of dollars in state money to improve educational facilities and create a state-of-the-art school. In addition, they point to regionalization and its efficiencies as an overriding trend of municipal reform.

But unlike other regionalization plans — such as collective emergency dispatch — regional vocational schools, in many cases, do not improve efficiency by relieving municipalities of having to provide the service themselves.

In that way, the schools resemble charter schools, which only a small fraction of the state's residents can attend, and do not negate the need for the traditional district schools from which they draw resources.

Some of the same think-tanks and advocacy groups that lobby for more charter schools, are at the forefront of calls for more vocational schools.

Like the charter debate, much of the discussion surrounding new vocational schools hinges on whether you think it is better to dedicate extra resources to improve the opportunities for some students, if you can't do it for all students, or at the expense of some students.

The new vocational school will choose the best students from member districts using an application process that takes into account middle school grades, behavior and attendance, among other criteria.

City-side budget

Right now in Gloucester, regional vocational expenses are covered by the city side of government, but Mayor Carolyn Kirk has proposed transferring those costs to the school budget.

Kirk has been a skeptic of the new vocational school, but has not yet said whether she will recommend pulling out.

If Gloucester joins the new vocational school, it is likely that the increased cost of the new school will have to be absorbed with cuts to education.

The city could already be looking at a $2.4 million annual loss in the future from the charter school on top of anticipated local aid cuts.

If Gloucester pulls out of the new school and tries to provide vocational education on its own, its current facilities at the high school, some of which are antiquated, will likely not be sufficient to deal with students returning or the number that would need to be drawn from neighbors.

In his analysis Tuesday, Farmer concluded that the savings from leaving the regional district "may" allow Gloucester to expand its local vocational programs and "break even." Farmer suggested that the Gloucester High School vocational offerings could be expanded from four programs to seven, by adding culinary arts, health assisting and cosmetology.

Marine studies?

He estimated, noting that much more detailed planning would have to be done, that it could be accomplished at a cost of $370,000, which would be partially offset by increases school choice "in" from students in neighboring districts.

A marine technology program, long a goal of city leaders, would be more complicated, but also possible, he said.

Other problems local leaders have had with the regional vo-tech plan include the fact that districts are being asked to commit to the project before the rules governing the district are written.

For years, there had been concern, not refuted by regional officials, that a "non-compete" provision in the old agreement prevented local communities from opening new vocational programs without permission from the regional voke.

But that permission, it was confirmed Tuesday, belongs instead to state Education Commissioner Mitchell Chester.

Another new detail of the complex regional vocational process revealed Tuesday by Teixeira that has not been publicized by regional officials, is that a district can join the new school as late as the July before the school opens, expected in this case to be 2013

Given the potential controversy of the issue, it is quite possible that City Council could take advantage of that extra time.

"I don't see this as us needing to get into it immediately," Teixeira said yesterday. "I feel that time is important. We have time and need to look at this and do more research."

Patrick Anderson can be reached at panderson@gloucestertimes.com

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