Wareham will pay the $37,500 in outstanding tuition it owes Bristol County Agricultural School for residents who attended the school this past year. But payments for next year are still up in the air.

Sixteen parents of Wareham students currently attending or entering the public agricultural high school attended a meeting with Bristol Aggie Superintendent Stephen Dempsey at the high school in Dighton to discuss the situation Monday night.

Dempsey said he spoke with someone inside the Wareham School Department Monday who told him that, while the department will pay the outstanding tuition for this year, there are still question for students in the years ahead.

According to Wareham Superintendent Kimberly Shaver-Hood, the town is not required to pay tuition to the out-of-district Bristol Aggie if a student’s course of study is also available at Upper Cape Cod Regional Technical High School.

Freshmen at Bristol Aggie spend their entire year in general study exploratory courses. Based on academic performance and attendance, students are then put into a program of their choice, with the better performing students getting their first or second choice of programs.

The issue for Wareham students is that some programs offered at Bristol Aggie are clearly not offered at Upper Cape but others are similar in a way that Shaver-Hood calls comparable.

"How do we identify what is comparable is what it comes down to," Dempsey said.

He said there are currently five Wareham students at Bristol Aggie with four entering as freshman in the fall, bringing next year's total to nine students.

Dempsey said Shaver-Hood is contending that four Wareham students in the horticulture programs could receive a comparable education at Upper Cape, but Dempsey describes his programs as being much more specific. He used the examples of arborculture and floriculture programs. The former has students working with chainsaws in trees and the latter with students designing flower arrangements. They are two focused and distinct programs that fall under the horticulture umbrella.

Wareham residents Peter and Cassandra Slaney were at the meeting because their daughter, Allison, just finished her sophomore year in the floriculture program and they're worried about her future at the school.

The Slaneys said that, after initially applying for the large animal sciences program, Allison got into her second choice program and fell in love with it.

"She's doing really well. She got an A in floriculture this year," Peter Slaney said.

Shaver-Hood said Wareham is bound by law to support students in programs at Bristol Aggie that are not offered at Upper Cape. However, if after a student's freshman year, he or she ends up in program that is also offered at Upper Cape, Wareham is not bound by law to pay for that student.

Wareham pays $18,860 to Bristol Aggie per student annually.

"If they end up in another program, it's our contention they have to return to the Wareham Public Schools or go to Upper Cape," Shaver-Hood said.

But Dempsey also said that, after speaking with Upper Cape Superintendent Robert Dutch, he was told Upper Cape is oversubscribed and there is no room for new students at Upper Cape in this coming school year. Dutch could not be reached for comment by Wareham Week.

Dempsey said that Wareham will be required to pay the tuition for a student at Bristol Aggie if the student applies for a spot at Upper Cape but is refused because Upper Cape is already full.

Dempsey sent a letter to the state Commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education Mitchell Chester on June 26 and said he will be keeping in contact with Chester's office as the issue is resolved.

"He is the last word on this whole issue," Dempsey said.

Many parents at the meeting discussed taking legal action against the Wareham schools or otherwise putting pressure on the Wareham school administration.

"We've got about eight weeks to figure it out," Peter Slaney said.