A Boarding School Runs Into Admissions Drop and Allows Mission Drift

The difficulties facing Pine Ridge School, in Williston, Vermont, should serve as a case-study for boards of directors of independent schools.

Pine Ridge was founded in 1968 as a co-ed boarding school for students with language-based learning disabilities (primarily dyslexia) and uses an Orton-Gillingham approach to remediation.

Enrollment began dropping five or six years ago, and the admissions department began admitting students with problems outside the school's area of expertise, specifically "students with emotional and behavioral challenges who would be better served at a therapeutic school with extensive counseling," according to Board of Trustees Chair Mitch Roman.

Enrollment continued to drop, and in January, the school faced a crisis.  The school responded by laying off a number of employees.

As difficult as the past few months have been, Roman is confident that the school will recover, grow and thrive under careful budgeting based "not on what we think, not on what we wish, but on actual numbers."

The board also moved to re-focus on the primary mission, educating students with dyslexia.  Specialized schools for dyslexic students are an important part of the range of educational opportunities available.  I hope for the best for Pine Ridge.

From the Burlington Free Press April 12 2008

Pine Ridge School in Williston is working to boost sagging enrollment and recover from financial woes that led to the layoffs of 16 employees in January and at least one employee in December.

That employee -- former dorm mother and residential instructor Nicole Burnell -- has filed a small-claims lawsuit against the private school in Chittenden Superior Court. The lawsuit seeks $3,177 in disputed pay. Burnell says she was abruptly fired on a Friday in December and told to move out that day from an apartment in the Pine Ridge dorm where she lived. "It was just a shock," said Burnell, who now lives in Highgate.

A lawyer for Pine Ridge responded to Burnell's lawsuit with a court filing denying any breach of contract. No court date has been set.

As that legal dispute plays out, a larger discussion is taking place about the health of the boarding school that specializes in teaching students with dyslexia and other language-based learning disabilities. The layoffs in January came after a committee that included trustees studied the school's financial health and concluded it had to trim payroll substantially in order to survive.

Mitch Roman, chairman of the board, served on the committee and was at Pine Ridge in January when school officials say 16 people were laid off. "It was probably one of the worst days of my life," he said in a telephone interview last week from his New Jersey office. "But it was either that or close the school at that point."

It's been a difficult few months for the school, he conceded. "I know there's a lot of rumors flying around. I know a lot of people are upset."

Shrinking enrollment

Pine Ridge was founded in 1968. The school's 16 buildings sit on 135 acres in a rural section of Williston near the Richmond line. Roman graduated from the school in the 1970s and credits teachers there for preparing him to complete college and build a career as a commercial real estate executive.

When he was growing up, few schools knew how to teach dyslexic students such as Roman. After being called "stupid" and "retarded" at public schools, Roman says he tasted school success for the first time at Pine Ridge. Now he's determined to keep the school open, even if it requires difficult decisions. "I would be so devastated if it closed," he said.

The school enrolls 74 students, including six day students. Most of the students are from out of state. The school has capacity for 98 residential students and about a dozen day students. Enrollment problems go back several years and should have been addressed sooner, Roman said. "This should have been done there four, five years ago."

As difficult as the past few months have been, Roman is confident that the school will recover, grow and thrive under careful budgeting based "not on what we think, not on what we wish, but on actual numbers."

Changes include a return to the school's original mission: educating students who have dyslexia, a learning problem that makes reading and writing more difficult. In recent years Pine Ridge has strayed from that course and accepted students with emotional and behavioral challenges who would be better served at a therapeutic school with extensive counseling, Roman said.

Pine Ridge will no longer accept these students, he said. "A lot of students were admitted to the school who shouldn't have been admitted to the school," Roman said. Some parents of current students are worried that the school's shift in focus will result in their children's being asked to leave, he said. As long as students follow the rules they can stay, he said. "We will not turn any existing students away, other than for behavior issues."

Although Pine Ridge is not a public school, public school districts are covering the tab for 32 percent of the students this year. Typically public schools choose or are legally required to make out-of-district placements because they do not offer suitable programming for a given student. The bill can be steep. Tuition and board for residential students at Pine Ridge next year is set at $55,285. Day students pay tuition only, set at $41,380 for 2008-2009.

Lawsuit pending

Pine Ridge officials would not comment last week on the Burnell lawsuit. Roman said he was unaware of it, and headmaster Dana Blackhurst was out of town and could not be reached for comment. Pine Ridge admissions director John Thomas responded to several questions via e-mail but wrote that he was unaware of the small-claims lawsuit. Pine Ridge's lawyer in the case, Kerin Stackpole, declined to comment.

Burnell's lawsuit says the school hired her at an annual wage and gave her a choice of receiving the pay in 21 or 26 installments. She chose 26 so as to cover the summer months when school is not in session. She received $495.96 weekly rather than $614.05 weekly for a duration of 16 weeks, her claim states. She is seeking the amount she would have been paid at the higher rate, plus two weeks' severance and $60 in court costs.

The school gave her no notice that she would be laid off and compensated her only through her last day on the job, Burnell said. "The only reasoning that the headmaster gave me, he said, 'It's just not working out.'"

At least one other employee was laid off in the same way that day, said Burnell, who is unemployed. School officials declined to comment on how many people were laid off in December.

It was Burnell's first year at the school. She is not a licensed teacher. She coached basketball, served as senior class adviser and taught evening classes in the dorm for residential students. It was difficult to leave them behind, Burnell said.

"It was tough for the kids, too," Burnell said. "(The administration) didn't give me any closure, they didn't let me say goodbye."

Contact Molly Walsh at 660-1874 or mwalsh@bfp.burlingtonfreepress.com

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As a public school teacher of 25 years, I am glad to see that there are schools such as Pine Ridge that can help students who struggle in the public school setting. I have been following with interest the difficulties Pine Ridge has faced and can see that some of these difficulties have emerged as the school began to accept students who did not fit the school's original mission statement of helping students with dyslexia. I agree with Mr. Roman that if this school is for children with true learning disabilities, students with emotional and behavioral challenges would hinder the school's mission. Children with dyslexia need a place where their needs can be served without hinderance. I believe the school is now on the right track and will succeed as it keeps its focus.

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