SCHOOL growth

Sustained long-term GROWTH is one word that underscores challenges faced by the Winchester Public Schools. For over twenty years, the district has seen remarkable growth rates. While the School Committee seeks budget increases each year to fund a select number of program improvements, the budget recommended by the Finance Committee and voted by Town Meeting often falls short. Although the School Committee and WPS Administration are always appreciative of year-over-year budget increases, they are frequently eclipsed by yearly rises in enrollment. Larger budgets divided by even larger student enrollment means we are not keeping pace with our needs-- and peer districts (see bottom).

our past

In 2007 Winchester was a district of just under 4000 students. By 2017 we’d seen over 17% growth in our student population-- over a period when state-wide enrollment continued to fall by over five percent. Even since 2017, state-wide enrollment has fallen slightly.

fy20 & fy21

According to the town census, there are 378 age-eligible Kindergarten students for next school year (FY20). Based on district inquiries with families, we estimate 20 will not attend, yielding 358 expected students. This figure does not account for spring & summer move-ins.

long term

The 2017 Master Plan projected a 10-year growth rate of nearly 16% by 2026-- very similar to the previous decade-- and the Donahue Institute agreed. This double-digit growth sets us apart from most other MA districts. The March override supports growth for the next 2-3 years.

where is all this growth coming from?

As confirmed by the University of Massachusetts Donohue Institute in 2017, Winchester is seeing a steady increase in school-age children among families here and we continue to see impacts from the usual out-migration/in-migration. Beyond this "baseline growth", we continue to see other significant drivers stemming from development, such as demolitions/rebuilds, housing-friendly zoning (such as 2016 CBD) and subdivision activity. Looking ahead, the town's scarce affordable housing inventory and the recently approved Housing Production Plan are expected to further growth to date with an additional 40 housing units per year.

more kids in families

Winchester's census demonstrates the appeal of our schools and demographic swell of 25% among our school-age population since 2000.

UMass Donohue Institute Report - 2017

demolitions

Demolition permits continue to be issued at between 20 to 25 per year, considered (conservatively) to support the 75 additional housing units projected by 2026. The Planning Department has noted that most of the demo permits issued are for 2- and 3-bedroom properties, yielding 4- and 5-bedroom homes as well as multi-family. Given that most demo properties have no children present (as they have aged out), development with more bedrooms has a compounding effect in terms of school age children.

how growth affects net spending

The Massachusetts Dept of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) records and reports on an annual basis the per pupil spending of all public and vocational school districts. Our FY17 spending of $13,610 per pupil falls well below that of our peer districts (see chart, below). This doesn't mean that Town Meeting hasn't funded increases in the WPS budget (it has), but sustained enrollment growth means the annual budget is spread more and more to support an ever-increasing number of students. For information or DESE state-wide reports, visit http://www.doe.mass.edu/finance/statistics/

losing ground over time

Winchester's per pupil spending is not only sharply lower compared with our peer districts but is also significantly below the state average.

For FY17, our $13,610/pupil was more than $2,400 below the state average of $16,015.

Seen another way, our FY17 per pupil spending was approximately the state average from five years before-- in FY12.

Winchester's spending of $13,610 per pupil falls well below that of our peer districts (see chart, below).

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