Chatham Elementary School
CHATHAM – A report by Monomoy Regional School Superintendent Scott Carpenter recently given to the Chatham Board of Selectmen said that Chatham Elementary School’s shrinking student enrollment is increasing costs and leading to Harwich taxpayers paying more and more for its operation.
Three years ago, Chatham elementary dipped in enrollment to the point where they went from 3 sections of kindergarten to two sections.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic hit this year, enrollment had decreased to the point that Chatham Elementary had only 1 section of kindergarten.
“The challenge that we’re seeing isn’t just a recent challenge. For the last two decades, and maybe even beyond that, all across the Cape, towns are seeing a demographic shift where we’re seeing fewer and fewer young families, and it’s tied to affordable housing, cost of living, the Cape being a retirement destination, and more recently the growth in the AirBnB-type of industry,” said Carpenter at the meeting.
“While every Cape town is seeing this loss of young families and school-age children, the town of Chatham has seen a greater rate of loss than most of the communities on the Cape, and it’s seeing a greater loss relative to Harwich.”
Chatham and Harwich are in a regional school agreement that dictates that there be at least one elementary school in each town and that each town pays according to student enrollment.
The cost to run the regional schools in both Harwich and Chatham gets split among taxpayers, however the 3-year rolling average finds Harwich taxpayers paying 74.35 percent of the cost to run the elementary school while Chatham, meanwhile, pays just over a quarter of the bill.
The enrollment decline has also raised the per-pupil expenditure due to lack of economy of scale, but Carpenter said he is concerned about the lacking social environment the small student community creates for both children and educators, as well.
Carpenter will meet with Harwich town officials to discuss the inequity in the education funding this month.
“This is a tipping point right here for us as a community,” said Select Board Chair Shareen Davis.
Solutions to the inequity that were proposed by Carpenter include closing Chatham elementary and moving its students to Harwich as well as possibly moving Harwich students to Chatham Elementary.
Having preschool through second grade students from both towns in one school with third and fourth grade students in the other was another option presented.
“I grew up in this town. I went to the elementary school and all the way through the high school. I don’t think there’s a such thing as a too small of a school, in my opinion. I have no regrets for my education here,” said Selectman Cory Metters.
“It’s a conversation starter, but I’m not going the doom-and-gloom position that we’re going to close the elementary school in x amount of years. I want to be very optimistic about it and do everything in my power to take the path that would maintain the elementary school and figure out what is, at the bottom line, best for the students and for the community.”
About Grady Culhane
