GUILFORD, Maine — SAD 4, which has closed all of its outlying elementary schools, consolidated students into two schools and imposed spending freezes to offset declining revenues, soon may look to Asia for a little help.
“We’ve had an enormous decline in revenue in the last four years from the state,” SAD 4 Superintendent Paul Stearns said Tuesday. He said the 2012 revenues are projected to be about $936,806 less than the district’s 2009 state revenue. “That’s how much less money we’ll be looking at when preparing our budget for next year.”
With few other places to reduce expenses to offset dwindling subsidies, the district is considering reaching out to Asian students as private schools have done for years and as some other Maine public schools are now exploring.
David Connerty-Marin, spokesman for the Maine Department of Education, said Tuesday that state officials are certainly aware that some schools are recruiting foreign students to help offset declining enrollment, which results in decreased revenues. It is an opportunity for schools, he noted.
The DOE neither tracks which schools recruit foreign students nor knows the number of foreign students being educated in the state, according to Connerty-Marin. He pointed out that unlike student exchange programs, no state subsidy is devoted to the recruited population.
Stearns, who expected to receive conceptual approval to recruit Asian students from directors on Tuesday night, wants to look into hosting up to six foreign students on a tuition basis. The idea would be for the students to pay a tuition that would more than cover school costs and the boarding costs of host families.
Unlike other Maine school officials who travel to Asia to recruit students, Stearns said the district would work with an agency and would proceed with caution. He envisions a program similar to the American Field Service program, which has been active in the district, with two exceptions: The students would be recruited by an agency, and the students would pay in excess of their tuition to include a stipend for the host families. Stearns said he has been told there’s no shortage of students from Asia wanting to attend American schools.
“We’re always interested in some subsidy and some revenue,” Stearns said, but he also noted that the program would bring cultural diversity to the district. Such a relationship might provide some opportunities, he said. For example, perhaps a SAD 4 student could study abroad for two to three weeks.
It’s not like SAD 4 hasn’t been exposed to Asian culture. It has. Several years ago, the district was one of the first schools in the nation to have a Chinese guest teacher as part of the College Board and Hanban program.
Stearns said that early program was a benefit to the district and he believes similar benefits will arise from the recruitment effort. He said he would like to have the additional students enrolled by next fall.
“I think that we’re looking at it at a small enough level to avoid some of the major changes that might come with a larger percentage” of foreign students, he said.