District picked for Harvard rural schools study

Along with 50 SULLIVAN — other rural school districts in Ohio and New York, Black River Local Schools has been chosen to participate in a Harvard University study that focuses on absenteeism and college readiness in rural schools.

“I was glad to see that we were chosen to be a part of this study,” said superintendent Chris Clark. “I think this will be good for Black River over the upcoming years.”

During the district’s July board meeting, Clark informed the board the application process began this past March and included extensive rounds of questions and interviews.

The initiative is called the National Center for Rural Education Research Networks (NCRERN) and is part of the Center for Education Policy Research at Harvard.

According to Clark, data will be collected from Black River and other participating districts to establish a base line of information before NCRERN takes the data to conduct experiments in a different rural state. The district will be considered a NCRERN “member” for a five-year period.

According to a July 19 Black River press release, the initiative will “produce tools for identifying students most at risk for absenteeism and being unprepared for college as well as change management resources designed to guide rural schools in addressing chronic absenteeism, college readiness and college enrollment.”

“They’ve done their homework on Black River and I definitely think it’ll be good for us,” Clark said.

Treasurer Connie Hange also updated the board on several financial items including the district’s projected Title 1 funding for 2020.

Title 1 is part of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 and is a federal aid program for public schools to support districts with low-income students. The amount of federal funding a district receives is based on the percentage of low-income students a district has.

According to Hange, in 2012 Black River received $642,000 in federal aid but are only projected to receive $252,000 in 2020 - a more than 60 percent reduction in federal funding.

“When we look at our percentage of low income students, on which we use for our eligibility for our buildings, we’re varying by less than two percent of low income students,” Hange said.

Hange wrote in an email that the decrease in funding has maintained a steady presence since 2012.

Board member Matthew Clark asked whether the decrease was due to a change in available federal dollars or a change in the application process and requirements.