Posted: Feb. 2, 2010

The Elmbrook School District will add 107 more Open Enrollment students next year, providing a revenue boost to the district but also increasing the percentage of nonresident students and potentially boosting class sizes.

The added seats are expected to generate between $300,000 and $350,000 after expenses in 2010-11 and about $150,000 annually for the next five years, according to district financial projections prepared by PMA Financial Network.

In total, Open Enrollment tuition is expected to bring $3.3 million to Elmbrook, up from $3 million this budget year.

Open Enrollment is a statewide program allowing students to attend school outside their home district. Those home districts pay Elmbrook about $6,500 per student.

Class sizes might grow, a bit

Districts are required by the state to open available seats to Open Enrollment students, though they have some control over the number of students they admit by setting the maximum size of their classes. In 2010-11, Elmbrook will maintain current class size guidelines of 20 students in kindergarten through grade three, 22 students in grades four and five, and 25 students in grades six through 12.

With the new seats, average ninth- and 10th-grade class sizes will increase from about 23 to 25 - still below the School Board-established class size maximum.

Including projected attrition, the new seats will increase the district's total Open Enrollment participation 11.1 percent, from 487 students this year to 541 next year. That number includes 34 students who have moved out of the district but requested to continue attending Elmbrook schools.

The added seats will increase the percentage of nonresident students in the district from 10.88 percent to 11.67 percent. However, the boost in Open Enrollment seats is offset slightly by a 26 student decrease in the number of available Chapter 220 seats approved by the board earlier this year.

Chapter 220 is a program that allows Milwaukee students to attend suburban school districts.

Still, Elmbrook's nonresident student population will remain higher than the board's 10 percent guideline.

Staffing considered

The additional students will help the district make the most efficient use of existing classroom space, said Christine Hedstrom, assistant superintendent for human resources. The new seats will be added to class sections with projected free space. That means no additional staffing will be required in 2010-11, barring a sizable unforeseen increase in resident students.

"When we open available seats, we always assume that we're not going to add FTE (full-time equivalent staff positions) as a result of bringing in those additional students, at least for this year," Hedstrom said.

In fact, the district projects it will cut the equivalent of 12 full time teachers next year.

However, board member Glen Allgaier said, there is no way to know whether the students will require increased staffing levels in future years.

Still, the financial projections were conservative in that they assume staff will need to be added, Allgaier said. With or without added staff, the new Open Enrollment seats will still be a financial positive to the district.

Board member Tom Gehl pointed out that if an influx of residents does occur in a later year, Elmbrook can ask nonresident students to reapply once during their academic career, either between fifth- and sixth-grade or between eighth- and ninth-grade.

BY THE NUMBERS

The 107 Open Enrollment seats opened by the School Board for the 2010-11 school year are to be distributed as follows:

27

elementary

16

middle school

64

high school

AT A GLANCE

Over the past eight years, the number of nonresident students attending Elmbrook through the Open Enrollment and Chapter 220 programs has steadily risen. That number is projected to rise again next year, when 107 new Open Enrollment seats open.

	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05	2005-06	2006-07	2007-08	2008-09	2009-10	2010-11*
Open Enrollment	212	263	338	394	430	441	443	487	541
Chapter 220	325	332	317	303	294	303	297	290	265
Residents	6,938	6,929	6,853	6,842	6,793	6,642	6,528	6,348	6,207
Total Enrollment	7,487	7,533	7,514	7,555	7,532	7,396	7,276	7,144	6,905
Percent of student body that are nonresidents	7.17%	7.9%	8.72%	9.23%	9.61%	10.06%	10.17%	10.88%	11.67%

Numbers are according to official counts taken each year on the third Friday in September, and do not include resident students who moved out of the district but continue to attend on a tuition waiver, Fairview South School, early childhood special education classes, self-contained elementary special education classes nor the K4 pilot program.

*2010-11 numbers are projected by district staff, assuming an 8 percent rate of attrition