West Bend Schools Losing Kids to Virtual Schools

This is an interesting story.  A while ago the news came out that for the first time, more kids were leaving the West Bend School District under open enrollment than were coming in.  This is significant because it indicates that something must be wrong with the district for people to be choosing to leave it.  As it turns out, a significant number of the kids who are leaving are going to virtual schools.

Of 60 people surveyed who applied to leave the district, 19, or 32 percent, are headed to a virtual school, such as Northern Ozaukee, to which eight applied. The Slinger School District drew 12 students, the second-most-popular destination.

This is significant when put in context.  The West Bend School District is gearing up for a massive school referendum that is based on the need to build new schools and update old schools.  Some of the thinking going into deciding how much the referendum should be is how nice the new facilities should be.  The design and materials used in construction has a huge impact on the cost of the project.  Some people have been saying that the new facilities need to be really nice.  Why?  Because of the perception that some kids were leaving the West Bend schools for the Slinger schools, which just built some really nice facilities. 

This information that far more kids are going to virtual schools than Slinger schools kind of puts a dagger in that rationalization for more lavish schools. 

The truth is that the West Bend schools provide a good education.  Good education can be delivered in the Taj Mahal or a warehouse.  The building matters much less than the people in it and work being done there.  I hope that the school board members will keep this in mind when they are calculating how many millions of dollars they plan to ask for. 

1. I’ll predict the borrow-and-spend-and-taxers’ take on this - “We need to build Taj Mahals so the kids come here to be spoon-fed our special brand of lieberal mush instead of staying home and potentially missing out on the indoctrination necessary to perpetuate the lieberal dream.”

   Posted by steveegg on April 25, 2007 at 1718 hrs




2. I’m not sure if the school district needs to read too much into this “trend” - it’s good to be cozignant of this and analyze their policies, procedures, facilities, and “quality” to make sure there isn’t anything causing people to leave because of “negative” factors, but other than that, I think it is simply people exercising choice.  Despite perceptions to the contrary, I think transportation costs aren’t a significant factor - people are willing to commute long distances to work, I’m sure that they don’t mind spending money to travel to another school system.  People are also exercising choice by attending parochial schools and home-schooling, and virtual schooling is a relatively new concept.

   All that being said, I would be a little concerned that the perception might be that students should “stay” in place & are “traitors” if they leave.  I would be even more concerned if the school system can’t deal with not having a captive constituency.

   If the Board Chair is monitoring this for quality control & improvement purposes, great!  That’s what a successful business would do.  If it is to drive future spending, I think that would be rather short-sighted.

   Posted by on April 25, 2007 at 1952 hrs




3. The schools will be neither lavish nor “Taj Mahals”.  Also, there will be no marble.  In fact recently $10 million was cut from the project because of innovative thinking. 

   Come to a meeting and learn rather than just throwing stones.

   Posted by on April 25, 2007 at 2048 hrs




4. ” Come to a meeting and learn rather than just throwing stones.”

   Come on, buffetman’71, you’re asking Owen to give up his raison d’être!

   Posted by on April 25, 2007 at 2120 hrs




5. My children (two boys) attend WIVA at Northern Ozaukee.

   It is not that the Neenah schools lack anything - the facilities are good, the teachers that I have met are excellent.  It is just that we feel that we can do a better job as our children’s primary teacher.

   Posted by Brian on April 26, 2007 at 0802 hrs




6. Brian’s comments are exactly why West Bend should offer a virtual program. It is just another educational choice that works for some students. And, once the courses and infrastructure have been developed, it is a rather inexpensive alternative.

   Posted by Charlie Hillman on April 26, 2007 at 0817 hrs




7. Brian’s comments are exactly why West Bend should offer a virtual program.

   Should they?  Assume I live there - why should I pick the West Bend program over the one I’m using now?

   Posted by Brian on April 26, 2007 at 0830 hrs




8. For the same reason that you choose any product over another, because it’s better. Competition makes us all stronger.

   Posted by Charlie Hillman on April 26, 2007 at 0839 hrs




9. As a resident of the West Bend School District and parent of a first-grader, I’m glad to see that Mr. Hillman (Board President?) is open to the idea of a virtual school via the WB School District.  At this point, I don’t know if it is a choice that I would ever want to utilize, but who knows what our needs will be in the future, in any event I would like my friends and neighbors to have that option.  I know several families that “home school” - I’m sure that they would be very interested. 

   I think public schools have to get past the concept that they should have a monopoly on the education of our children and be open to forming partnerships with the alternative educators.  If memory serves me right, I recently heard our Superintendant say that only 40% of households in the West Bend School System have children in the WB system.  My question would be, especially now that building referendums are being brought up, what is the school district doing to “connect” with the other 60%?

   I think this could be done by a WB-based virtual school that maybe offers some optional facility-based programs for that population, and working relationships & sharing of resources with the parochial schools and home-schoolers.  Just as an aside, I recently read that the Milwaukee School District has expanded their K-4 program by utilizing existing private providers - this gave them the capacity to increase the program without having to make a huge investment in infrastructure.

   Posted by on April 26, 2007 at 1034 hrs