Holy Cap!: MV's student enrollment on the verge of rising

Parents anxiously await lottery drawings that decide
whether their children will be accepted to MV.

Photo courtesy of MVRCS.com

By: Claire Inzerillo

Mystic Valley Regional Charter School has approached the state of Massachusetts requesting a cap increase, and, as of now, it is very likely that this proposed idea will be granted.

Right now, Mystic Valley’s student count is capped at 1,500 students, spread throughout all of the Kindergarten through 12^th grade classes. When the proposal passes, that cap will increase to approximately 1,900 students. This plan would be implemented over the course of the next twelve years, meaning that about 30 new children will be enrolled each year as incoming MV kindergarten students.

When it comes to determining student cap numbers, the Mystic Valley board of trustees needs approval from the state. Mystic Valley is governed by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (abbreviated as DESE). You may have seen them visit our school on certain occasions. The DESE is then governed by a board, just like MV.

For a request or proposal to reach the board, it has to be recommended by the Commissioner of the DESE. To compare this to Mystic Valley, it would be like Assistant Director Mr. Dan approving a new rule, such as allowing the usage of electronics at school, and then forwarding it to Director Mr. Trice for approval. He then brings it to board of trustees, and they vote on it.

The vote for the proposed cap increase is taking place in December of this year, and perhaps into January of 2016. If passed, the school could start accepting more students in the 2016/2017 school year.

Mystic Valley is known for being a small school with quality education, but the problem is, by limiting how many students they can accept, many families are denied that privilege. According to Newsweek Magazine (2012), Mystic Valley is the second best public high school in Massachusetts and in the top one percent nation-wide, and with a cap on how many students can be accepted, the dissemination of the quality program that they offer is limited.

Of course, being able to accept more students would bring rise to a number of other questions. Is there enough space and resources to adequately support them? What would be the effect on the surrounding community? Mystic Valley has worked to answer these concerns.

The MVRCS Enrollment Policy reads, “If the Malden cap has been reached, and a Malden student on the waitlist in an under-enrolled grade is next on the list, we would not be allowed by the state to admit that student even though the students’ grade may not yet be completely full.”

This was a concern that Mystic Valley faced while pushing for this cap increase, namely, how to manage enrollment. As you may already know, MV gives preference to siblings of enrolled students, and our school had a very long sibling wait list who couldn’t be admitted because our cap had been reached. But, at the end of last year, many students moved away, and all of the siblings were admitted.

With this hurdle behind them, along with property acquisitions like the Eastern Avenue facility and the Emerson Building, Mystic Valley was all squared away for the proposed cap increase. As you may notice when walking through the Emerson building, more than half of the classrooms are empty.

“We need[ed] to have our ducks in a row,” said Mr. Dan.

With more students comes more funding to better the education of Mystic Valley’s students. Furthermore, more electives can be created, and new courses can be created.

“Students would see more opportunities for enrichment,” Mr. Dan said.

Mystic Valley has a plan to receive more students. With the cap increase, Mystic Valley’s highly-praised curriculum will be available to more families in Massachusetts.