Managing Editor
Over the next three years, the population of Washtenaw Technical Middle College students may grow by 50 more students, according to a formal recommendation that could add as much as $350,000 in state revenues by 2014.
Proposed on Nov. 22 by WTMC Dean Karl Covert before the Washtenaw Community College Board of Trustees, the charter school hopes to expand its student body and open its doors gradually to more students as early as next Fall.
The WTMC program allows high school students to integrate into the college’s social fabric by taking full-time college credit courses in lieu of the typical high school experience.
With this proposed growth, adding 50 students annually over a three-year period, the WTMC’s enrollment would grow to 450 students by 2014.
The admission process for WTMC begins in the Spring semester, Covert said. In order to add the new students before Fall, the board would have to take action in this month.
“If voted on in December, we would have between 20-25 more students by next Fall,” Covert said.
The proposed change in population would allow more students to apply for admission and would allow a greater number of high school students to take part in the experience. And while it is true that last year WTMC program only accepted 145 of the total 250 applicants, according to Covert’s executive summary presented to the board, the proposition is as equally the byproduct of lowered state funding.
“As our regular numbers decrease, this increase of students would help drive up our numbers,” said Trustee Richard Landau, a presiding member of the WTMC board.
The additional students would increase the college’s bottom line. State funding for K-12 and charter school education has dramatically decreased over the past few years, according to Covert, and with extra students comes extra funding.
“Our students pay the same college tuition rate as other students,” Covert said. “There is a benefit there.”
Current funding from the state’s coffers for an individual high school student stands at about $7,000, according to Covert. By changing the contract, the additional 50 students would mean nearly $350,000 worth of additional funding – money from local schools these students would otherwise be attending.
“They would prefer that we didn’t do it,” said WCC President Rose Bellanca, speaking to how this could affect the relationship the college has with the surrounding area public schools. “But we do pull from charter-school funding as well, and we help out the K-12 community other ways.”
Bellanca did not specify in which ways the college assists area schools, but her assertion stood correct about pulling funding from them.
“I think at this point any loss of a student is something that is a bitter pill to swallow,” said Ypsilanti Public Schools Superintendent Dedrick Martin. “It would be interesting instead, to see in what ways WCC and the program would be able to partner with the public schools. We all have the same goal, and it is very similar to ideals that most schools believe in anyway. Instead of competing, we should be working together to build a quality program that both our students can benefit from.”
While an increase in funding would be ideal, BOT Chair Pamela Horiszny raised the issue of how the continued growth of the program would affect college resources and facilities.
“Class sizes would remain the same and won’t grow,” Covert said.
The program is currently housed in the Technical Industrial building, and if the program did grow too large, further recommendations would be made.
Yet another important issue looms over the WTMC expansion – discipline.
The college’s contract limiting the number of underage students was put in place because of some disciplinary issues in past years. These include behavior problems and poor attendance.
WTMC also garnered a high dropout rate, with students either returning to their original high schools or transferring to a different one. Other problems included inappropriate behavior in the Bailey library, congregating en masse in certain high traffic areas of the college’s buildings and smoking.
Covert said WTMC has worked diligently to resolve those issues.
“We’ve just been very cognizant of what is going,” Covert said. “We’re working with them closely and letting them know that they’re college students and that we expect them to act like college students.”
Disciplinary problems have decreased dramatically, and the students’ success and graduation rate stands at 97 percent, according to Covert.
“The WTMC population are fine contributors to the WCC population,” Covert said. “They don’t stand out in a negative way.”
With its students growing up, he said, the program has earned the right to grow as well.
