BY JEFF CHUDZINSKINorth Country This Week

MASSENA -- Policies related to tuitioning of students in the Massena Central School District will be reviewed in the coming weeks as district officials aim to maintain their quota of universal pre-kindergarten students.

School officials say the loss of students and falling below the quota could lead to a loss of state funding, while expenses would remain the same.

Superintendent Ron Burke said that could lead to financial difficulties for the district in the future, prompting a review of the policy.

Burke said the district's Policy Committee had decided against the idea of tuitioning students earlier this year, however he is now asking the committee "to consider a proposal where we would allow students for UPK."

Burke told board members he was concerned with meeting the quota for the number of UPK students the district is currently serving.

“We’ve talked a little bit about it at this level, that we have pretty much a quota that we have to meet in terms of the number of students that are in our UPK program. Otherwise, we lose state funding. Our expenses remain the same. But, if we go from 18 students, which is the max and that’s what we get funded for, down to even 16 students in the classroom, we lose that per student ratio of that funding,” Burke said.

He commented that employees or other individuals coming to the UPK program could fill up those spaces, making it a financial gain for the district.

Burke suggested the district also look outside those channels and include Native American students as well.

He said the district, through its contract with New York State for education of indigenous students, can only accept Native American students into grades K-12, despite multiple requests from the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe.

"We've had to deny them in the past, knowing full well that they're going to come to us in kindergarten," he said.

"So again, it's a mutual benefit. We have those students, and we get to work with them right from the earliest age all the way through,” Burke said.

Burke said the committee would review the policy again and make a recommendation to the school board, however no specific timeline was offered during the April board meeting.