You can pay tuition to send
your kid to Hawthorne High School
By Philip DeVencentis
NorthJersey.com
USA Today Network - New Jersey
HAWTHORNE - The high school has a new policy in place to accept tuition-paying students who do not live in the borough.
..... Admission to the high school, an 85-year-old building that enrolls 672 pupils, will depend on several criteria, including its capacity and the student's academic record.
..... The decision by the Broad of Education to take in out-of-towners comes amid a slip in the retention rate of students between Lincoln Middle School and the high school. But, leaders of the K-12 district would not assign that as their reason to adopt the policy. In fact, they would not give any explanation for it.
..... Provided all criteria are met, said schools Superintendent Richard Spirito, an interested student will have to pay $14,741 per year. That cost does not include transportation; the policy states the district will not bus non-residents.
..... Spirito would not answer further questions, referring only to an application form on the district's website. Michael Doyle, the school board's president, did not return a call seeking comment.
..... The tuition rate is less than what is charged at some of the most elite private high schools in the area. Tuition at Don Bosco Prep in Ramsey, for example. is $15,550. Immaculate Heart Academy, an all-girls school in the Township of Washington, set tis rate at $17,550 for next year. [2020-2021]
..... But, many graduates of the middle school opt to go to Passaic County Technical Institute, a magnet high school in Wayne, where they do not have to pay tuition.
..... PCTI had 101 students from Hawthorne - 22 more than last year [2019] - when it opened its doors in September. [2019]
..... The retention rate of students between middle school and high school began to drop off in 2017, according to the most recent available figure on the state Department of Education website.
..... The high school's freshman class had 150 students that year, [2017] compared to 168 eighth-graders at the middle school the year before. [2016]
..... And, the Class of 2022 entered the high school two years ago with 179 students, 26 fewer than it had in its last year at the middle school.
..... At the same time, the district's costs for out-of-district tuition are rising. costs went up to $3.8 million - up from $2.9 million - between 2017 and this year, [2020] budget figures show.
..... A state law, enacted in 1967, allows districts to accept non-residents, with or without tuition.
..... since then, said Frank Belluscio, deputy-executive director of the New Jersey School Boards Association, many local boards have adopted policies to make such decisions on a case-by-case basis.
.... In Hawthorne, those choices will rest heavily on the superintendent of schools, who will interview each candidate and his or her parents.
.... A separate policy allows a non-resident to attend classes in Hawthorne, but only if he or she had been going to a local school and moved out of town on or after May 15.
..... In that case, the student can finish the year, without interruption and without having to pay tuition.