News that Blind Brook School District's offer for out-of-district students to attend its public schools, for a tuition fee, is spreading.
The Journal News and Wall Street Journal have both published articles on the decision. Also, Channel 2 News aired a piece in which Superintendent Stark explains that the public school tuition offer is an alternative for parents to private schools.
This past weekend the Associated Press sent out a piece about the district's offer which was picked up by news outlets across the country, including Yahoo.com. The piece described a district direct mail piece to households in neighboring districts from Port Chester and Harrison in New York to Greenwich, over the state line in Connecticut.
Blind Brook School District's out-of-district $20,000 tuition fee could potentially bring the district about $400,000 based on enrolling 20 fee-paying students.
According to the school district's Pinnacle web page, New York State sets annual rate out of district tuition tuition, which this past school year was $19,569 for K-6 students and $21,500 for grades 7-12.
To put the tuition in context, RCDS, according to the school's website, set its 2013-14 tuition at $34,600 for Grades 9- 12 , $33,000 for grades 7-8, and at the elementary level charges $30,100 for K-3. And the average number of new students admitted for 9th grade at RCDS is 20, according to the website. In Greenwich, Brunswick's 9-12 tuition is $35,700 in 2012-2013. Greenwich Academy's tution for 2013-2014 in 9-12 is $37,500.
Blind Brook has also been mentioned by several news outlets lately because of the Board's vote to allow the Superintendent to retire to start collecting his pension but then start work again at full salary a few days later. The superintendent's salary plus pension would cost taxpayers about $460,000, about the same amount he has said he hopes the district will make from out-of-town tuition.
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