NFA has tools to deal with student downturn
This is not a phenomenon exclusive to NFA. Many schools in the region are seeing shrinking class sizes. But the large area NFA draws from exacerbates the situation.
It was a bit shocking to hear that Norwich Free Academy was trimming its budget for the coming school year by nearly 8.5%, to $34.6 million, which will require significant cuts in staffing. But in pursuit of silver linings, the quasi-public school — or should that be quasi-private? — has advantages that can help it stabilize the situation and prevent such tough actions from becoming standard business.
How quickly the situation can be turned around depends significantly on First-year Head of School Brian Kelly’s ability to utilize the school’s assets to rebuild the enrollment of both foreign students and other students from outside the district, whose families are willing to pay tuition to attend the school.
That Kelly forthrightly confronted a problem that was clearly in the making before his arrival is an indication that the Board of Trustees selected a leader who won’t sugarcoat. Kelly conceded having to propose deep cuts was not how he anticipated starting his time at NFA, but said the adjustment was necessary and would have only been more difficult if delayed.
Michael O’Farrell, the director of the Office of Communications, noted Thursday that his boss hasn’t witnessed a normal NFA yet, since the school has been in some form of remote or hybrid learning model since his hiring last May.
Charts presented to the trustees raise questions on why adjustments were not made sooner, potentially avoiding the steep staff cuts announced this week. As early as 2016-2017 school enrollment started its decline yet increases in staffing continued. In the interview, Kelly was careful not to criticize his predecessor, David Klein, on this point, but conceded he had the same questions.
Under the new budget, the school will cut 26 positions, including 15 teachers and two administrators. Additional administration-level adjustments will lower the salary of other positions. Perhaps this is recognition by new leadership of the “top-heavy” charge that has often been targeted at the large school.
Student enrollment is projected to drop next year to under 2,000 — to 1,972 — for the first time since 1997. Indicative of the drop is the 522 students projected to be in the senior class compared to only 440 in the incoming freshman class.
This is not a phenomenon exclusive to NFA. Many schools in the region are seeing shrinking class sizes. But the large area NFA draws from exacerbates the situation.
Norwich Free Academy is a charter school of sorts, with roots in the 19th century. It is the designated high school for Norwich and seven other rural and suburban towns. It is privately run, its board unelected, but is subject to state educational mandates and the Freedom of Information Act because most of its income comes from tax dollars.
Norwich and the other towns utilizing NFA pay the tuition for every student that attends the school, and that cost will be increasing 3% to $13,175 for Norwich students, $13,375 for students from the other seven districts. Norwich gets a host-community discount.
Avoiding a tuition increase would have required deeper staffing cuts, arguably to the point where it would have detracted from the diversity of educational opportunities that make the school special in the area. And to be fair, had the NFA trustees simply passed along the cost increases, rather than making the deep cuts, a 16% increase in tuition would have been necessary.
About those silver linings, NFA’s unusual status allows it to have private-school trappings, including enrollment of foreign students. Those numbers dropped dramatically due to the pandemic, only 19 such students rather than the projected 60. That resulted in a revenue loss. The budget projects no foreign students next year.
Kelly, whose background includes school administration positions in Greece, South Korea and Colombia, said he sees a strong potential to increase foreign student enrollment when the world moves past the COVID crisis, though the number will be limited by the fact the school has no intention of building dormitory housing. Visiting students stay with local families. NFA can also draw other tuition-paying students from outside its district.
Surely the sending towns would welcome any measures that can stabilize the academy’s finances and give them a reprieve from another tuition hike the following year.