By David S. Lewis

VOORHEESVILLE—Colleen Bates will be the only student representing Voorheesville next year at Tech Valley High, the experimental tech-based regional high school that started this year.  The school board here held a straw vote at its budget meeting Monday night and determined that, while keeping one student enrolled at the school was important, a tightened budget didn’t allow for sending another.

Ilyssa Hoffman-Simken was selected to begin Tech Valley next year, but it seems likely that the offer will be rescinded after the board makes its formal vote on the budget in April.  Ilyssa and her mother, Shari Hoffman-Simken, were both at the meeting, but Ilyssa had to leave early in order to study.  Mrs. Hoffman-Simken asked the board to reconsider and said she was extremely disappointed in the board’s reluctance to send her daughter to Tech Valley.

The school was developed by local Boards of Cooperative Educational Services to serve as a model for modern learning, from which participating schools could glean best practices. The annual tuition for each student is $18,000, but the home district is reimbursed for a portion of that through BOCES aid.

“I think this is a way of teaching our children for the 21^st Century,” Mrs. Hoffman-Simken said. “I think this is an opportunity we shouldn’t pass on.” She assured the board that the investment would pay the district back “one hundredfold.”

Board member Timothy Blow said that he didn’t think the Tech Valley program was a sound investment for the district, suggesting that the money would be better put to use for the students enrolled in Voorheesville schools.

“These are things we can learn to do easily ourselves. We could send 10 students to New Visions,” Blow said, referring to another BOCES program, “for the cost of sending one student to Tech Valley.”

Board member Kevin Kroencke agreed.  “In a perfect world, with unlimited resources, I would support this,” he said, continuing, “That $18,000 could be put to other uses that would benefit the kids immediately and the district greatly.”  Kroencke, who no longer has children enrolled in the district, reminded the board that two-thirds of the homes in the district don’t have any children enrolled in the schools, and warned that, in order to ensure further support from the community, the board needs to be mindful of the rest of the community.  He went on to suggest the experimental school was a matter of politics as well an endeavor of education.

“Let’s not kid ourselves, here; resources are being thrown at this school for reasons that are political,” and made references to the school’s “Godfather” in the state legislature.

Another opponent to the second student was board member Thomas McKenna, but he was careful to recognize the importance of supporting the student already attending the school.

“We shouldn’t yank the rug out from under the student we already have there,” he said, “but as a fiscal conservative, I couldn’t support sending another.”

Board President David Gibson reminded everyone that Tech Valley High has only been operational for six months, saying that there is no way yet to use the data it has collected.

“I think the difference between no student attending and one student attending would be a sacrifice I wouldn’t want to make,” said Gibson.

Tech Valley High School, with a total of 40 students from the Capital Area enrolled, uses hands-on teaching methods and project-based learning to prepare students for the rigorous technology-sector demands in the 21^st Century.  Supported by local BOCES as well as such private companies as the Gates Foundation, IBM, and General Electric, the school uses advanced software systems and what it calls “real-world assessment” projects as well as combining different disciplines and emphasizing critical thinking.

 Brian Stumbaugh, the data coordinator for Voorheesville’s middle and high schools, gave a presentation on the pros and cons of sending students through the program, as well as estimating the investment potential for the district.

Pros include the practical value of having an inside story on the unconventional teaching structures for the district, as well as the practical knowledge students would gain from the experience.  The drawback to the program is the cost to the district.

Gibson argued that the actual cost would subtract $6,000, the cost of educating the student if she remained in the district, and the home school also benefits by having a smaller class.

Although Gibson was a strong supporter of the program, he seemed to have difficulty convincing enough of the other members of its value. He took informal votes, which were split, that indicated board members would support continuing Bates’s schooling at Tech Valley High, but not support sending another student. The original plan was for each participating to school to send one student each year.

Several board members including Kroencke, Blow, and Vice President  C. James Coffin, expressed serious doubts as to whether even the first student’s enrollment was a sound investment at a time when the budget was tight.

Those attending Monday’s meeting also had divided sentiments. Several strong proponents hailed the values of enhancing Voorheesville’s curriculum and learning paradigms as well as expressing fears that the district could be “left behind’ if it didn’t take advantage of the opportunity. But other residents said that it seemed to be a waste of money that could be better spent on students actually going to school in the district.  Opponents of the Tech Valley program said that it didn’t make any difference to them whether BOCES came through or not; they felt it was a waste of resources.

Bates is preparing for her sophomore year at Tech Valley High; she was disappointed to learn that she will probably be the only student attending the school from Voorheesville.  She told The Enterprise that the small class size and the amount of personal attention the students received from teachers made a significant difference in students’ performance.

“The teachers know if you are having a hard time and they really try to help you,” she said.

 Bates became friends with Ilyssa Hoffman-Simken at a recent meeting and said she was sad that she wouldn’t be getting the opportunity to go to the school.  She said the program has not only taught her useful skills, but also improved her ability to communicate.

“I had really hoped they would send someone else,” said Bates. “The program is really beneficial and I don’t know why they can’t see that.”

Shari Hoffman-Simken said yesterday that the program is a great opportunity not just for students, but also for teachers.  An educator for over 25 years, Hoffman-Simken has a master’s degree in education and works as a consultant for elementary drama programs that seek to integrate drama into school curricula.  She said that curricula based on standardized testing don’t foster a “thinking atmosphere” and said that it causes teachers to burn out. 

She called the board’s decision “illogical.”

“You can’t base your decision to participate in a program on a single child’s performance; it puts a lot of pressure on Colleen and it isn’t fair,” said Mrs. Hoffman-Simken. “This program has only been around for six months…We’ve had eight years to determine whether No Child Left Behind works,” she said, referring to federal legislation that mandates testing. “And guess what?” she concluded. “It doesn’t.”

Hoffman-Simken said that she would be speaking in favor of the program even if it weren’t her child who had been selected.

“If Ilyssa continues in Voorheesville schools, she will get a great education.  We are very fortunate this way,” she said.

Ilyssa’s application had been approved by Tech Valley High School, but school principal Mark Diefendorf told her and her parents that enrollment approval was pending a final decision by the board.  That decision will be made on April 7 at the next regular meeting.