By ROBERT LINNEHAN
After researching surrounding area private schools and their policies on tuition discounts for families with several children in the school district, the Haddonfield Board of Education approved a 10 percent family discount for tuition students.
For a family with more than one tuition student in the Haddonfield School District, each student that is enrolled in the district after the first will receive 10 percent off of the $11,000 yearly tuition.
BOE member Heather Paoli contacted six surrounding private schools — including Bishop Eustace and St. Joseph’s Prep — and found that only one offered a tuition discount for families. St. Paul VI Catholic High School offers families a $500 discount on tuition for each student that is enrolled into the district after the first.
St. Paul VI has a yearly tuition rate of $7,125 per student.
While the discount was approved, not all members initially were in favor of the deal.
“I can’t give a discount back to our tax payers if they have more than one child in the district,” said Lynn Biehn, BOE member.
However, it was determined that this could be a good way to stand out among the other private school districts that charge for tuition. It was ultimately approved by the BOE and any students enrolled after Sept. 1 will receive the discount.
Any new tuition student this year will receive the discount starting next year if applicable.
This past year the school district has invested almost $12,000 in a marketing campaign to bring additional tuition students into the district. Board of Education member Joe Ehrhardt spearheaded a committee to bring in several new tuition students from the middle school level up.
A recent open house program saw between 25 to 30 students and their parents show up, Ehrhardt said, expressing interest in enrollment. The Haddonfield School District matches up well with private school districts in the area in terms of testing, course offerings, and extra curricular classes, Ehrhardt said.
He pointed to the district’s success in the recent New Jersey School Reports Cards. Haddonfield students tested high at all levels and averaged the highest SAT scores out of any high school in the Tri-County area.
“We’re getting the word out about our program. It wasn’t a very well known program even though we’ve had it for years,” he said. “From that standpoint, just the amount of people we had show up for the open house. I think we’re happy so far with the results.”
