Danvers Wrestles With Causes Of High School Enrollment Decline

DANVERS, MA — A year ago, the Danvers Select Board placed an article on the warrant of the annual town meeting aimed at restricting the number of Danvers students who could be accepted to Essex Tech each year in order to stem escalating costs and high school enrollment defections.

While the article requesting a home rule petition capping the number of Danvers students at the neighboring career and technical education school at 40 per class was eventually pulled from the warrant before the annual town meeting, concerns about the declining enrollment at DHS and the number of students applying to other high schools continues to weigh heavy on the School Committee and Select Board.

Danvers High Principal Adam Federico addressed some of those concerns at Monday night's School Committee meeting on the same night that Michael Landers, Danvers liaison to the Essex Tech School Committee, reported on what is driving an increasing percentage of students to apply to and attend the career and technical education high school.

"We're not an island," Federico noted. "There are things unique to Danvers that we need to certainly work on and be aware of. But this is part of a larger trend across the state."

He said that while Danvers enrollment has declined from more than 1,000 students to closer to 700, public schools in Wakefield and Wilmington — districts of similar size with similar CTE and private school alternatives — are experiencing comparable declines.

He said a survey among Danvers families that chose schools other DHS revealed a desire among those students to achieve a trade or technical certificate as part of their high school experience, more work-based experience and the chance to earn more college credits while in high school.

"Some of those things we can definitely do," Federico said. "Some of those things are not necessarily in line with what a traditional high school provides.

"People are looking at schooling differently," he added. "I also think the dramatic rise in college tuition is a huge part of families thinking: What is my child going to do beyond high school? For anyone paying college tuition now — and I have two of them on the books — it is not an easy endeavor to go through. Other choices can provide a different approach there."

Landers said that his data indicates about 50 percent of Danvers eighth-graders will apply to Essex Tech this year — Federico said his numbers are closer to 37 percent — and that the Danvers proportion of the Essex Tech population is expected to increase once again.

"Based on past practice my expectation is that we would see between 60 and 70 students from Danvers going up there in next year's freshman class," he said.

Despite having about 10 percent of the population from 17 "sending" communities to Essex Tech, Danvers students make up about 19 percent of the student body.

"The administration up there believes very, very strongly in the program that's provided up there," Landers said. "There is a belief that expanding that program is beneficial to both the county and the sending communities."

Federico said the district needs to do a better job engaging Danvers students earlier in middle school and make them feel that their needs will be met academically, culturally and socially at DHS.

"When this survey went out last year we were coming off, obviously, a very difficult year," he said. "We went through a lot of adversity as a town and as a school. We put in a number of components to work on that area."

He said adding the community block, more refined reporting, investigating and disciplining incidents of bullying and bias, and the elevation of students' voices within the school community were important steps the district has taken to address some of the climate and culture concerns.

"How do we ensure the town of Danvers understands, and has an accurate sense, of what this place is like?" Federico said. "We are still very dedicated to the notion of transparency. We have spent a lot of time, starting last year, making sure the community can access and understand what we're doing at Danvers High School."

Federico cited a greater social media presence, weekly newsletters to families and an open-door policy to discuss any concerns as some of the tools the school has used to increase transparency and engagement.

"We are encouraging options," he said of families being able to decide the best high school pathway for students. "Do your homework.

"But include us in that homework."

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)