School Committee members are troubled that fewer children are attending Wareham schools, according to an eight-year data set presented during a School Committee meeting Wednesday night.

The data compiled shows an increase in out-of-district enrollment, contributing to an overall decline in the Wareham public school student population of about 400 students in the last eight years. The data was gathered from questionnaires Superintendent Kimberly Shaver-Hood sent out to parents in the Wareham area.

Committee member Clifford Sylvia said it is in part because of the way Wareham schools are viewed, compared with other schools in the surrounding area.

“There is a perception that, for whatever reason, students are getting a second-rate education in Wareham,” Sylvia said. “Well, being a Wareham educator for 31 years … that couldn’t be further from the truth.”

“We’ve got to make an honest effort to toot our own horns … put our best foot forward,” Sylvia continued. “Wareham has been stigmatized.”

Secretary Rhonda Veugen agreed that the school district needs to step up, in terms of marketing itself as a first-rate education system. She suggested social media and volunteerism as two possible solutions.

“It’s not about whether we market [the school system], or don’t market it, it’s how we’re doing it. And, right now, I think that we’re doing it poorly,” Veugen said. “We talk about it in our little meetings, instead of coming up with a really big plan of how we can market our schools, and the incredible things that are going on in here.”

Veugen later said that the school system needs to retool how it thinks about itself, and focus more on marketing itself along a more corporate, company-based mindset.

“Yes, we’re a school district, but we have a product, and that product is our children,” Veugen said. “Our customer base is our community at large ... We need to let them know why we’re the best at improving the product that we have.”

She also said during the meeting that one of the reasons parents do not choose to send their children to Wareham schools is because many people have looked at the budget cuts within the last four years, and assume there is not enough money for a quality education.

But Chairman Geoffrey Swett disagreed, regarding the ability of the Wareham Public Schools to solve this plight. Swett said the decrease in students attending Wareham schools is a reflection of the overall demographic shift Wareham has seen over time.

“Almost 60 percent of the problem, in terms of the shrinkage … is, in fact, not because families are choosing to go somewhere else,” Swett said. “It’s because the kids don’t exist at all.”

Swett said the community of Wareham -- and the state of Massachusetts -- is shrinking overall, “and that is a demographic fact.”

“The number of people asking for service is simply shrinking,” Swett said. “I think that is going to be a challenge for … everybody who wants to make sure that, not only is the education outstanding, but the cost per student of that education is appropriate, given the fact that we are shrinking.”

The committee also discussed the new in-progress report card layout, which is aimed at making student report cards easier for parents to understand. It also heard a report from Michael Macmillan, business manager for Wareham Public Schools, regarding the new food service program, which saw a 104 percent increase in students receiving free breakfast, and a 28 percent increase in students participating in free lunch.