In addition, the demographics of the school changed dramatically after it became a Horace Mann charter school. The percentage of Hispanic students dropped from 30% in the 2007-08 school year to 23.6% in 2008-09, the first year it operated as an in-district charter. By 2016-17, that number had declined even further, to 18.7%, or nearly half what it had been as a regular district public school. Not surprisingly, there are similar declines in the percentages of students whose first language is not English and English language learners.
DESE raised concerns about these issues in its site visit report of Feb. 25, 2016, noting: “Enrollment of English language learners (ELLs) and economically disadvantaged students are below rates of the comparison schools. Enrollment of special education students is equal to comparison schools, although below Haverhill Public Schools. In 2014-15, the school did not implement many of its recruitment and retention strategies because the recruitment and retention plan was approved in late December of the previous year.”