Enrollment drops in Red Oak District

 

The Red Oak School District, as well as others in Southwest Iowa, are once again seeing declining enrollment this year.

The official count day for schools was Oct. 1. The certified enrollment date was Oct. 15. According to Superintendent Tom Messinger, the total number of resident students in the Red Oak District has dropped from 1002 to 962.50, a total of 39.50 students, and the actual enrollment of students in the district is 1032.59, down from 1057.08 a year ago, making the actual certified enrollment total down 24.49 students. Messinger said the resident student drop was even more troubling than the certified enrollment numbers.

“Even though it’s not for funding purposes, I look at that more than the certified enrollment numbers. It shows me our school district is losing kids fast. It’s alarming that we’re losing kids in the district at that rate,” Messinger said.

The drop in enrollment numbers will have an effect on supplemental state aid, as well as other funding sources.

“The allotment per kid is $6,731. It does not impact our budget next year, it’s the following year. The funding is always a year behind the enrollment. Another thing that will be impacted is the penny sales tax that’s awarded per pupil. The other is our TLC money, which is based off of enrollment as well. State aid isn’t the only thing enrollment hits, it will hit us in other ways as well,” commented Messinger.

Currently, the district’s budget is reflecting an enrollment decline of 22 students. Next year, Messinger said, will be a rough year.

“Next year, we get the money for being 54 students down that we were. On this year’s funding, that would be $363,000. By the time this gets up here, being a little over 24 students down, it will be roughly $175,000. They’re some big hits to the budget.”

Messinger added their student support coordinators have contacted a majority of the families, or neighbors, and said there are a number of factors leading to the enrollment decline.

“Changes of job, changes of marital status, changes in the family structure in some way. We also heard from some people who said they were unable to maintain the housing situation they had here. But family structure, marriage, and jobs were the big reasons we heard. There’s also a difference in open enrollment this year. We are down 14 students in open enrollment this year,” said Messinger.

While the decline in enrollment is troubling, Messinger said there were some positive signs for the future, and stressed the need for the district’s building downsizing.

“We have a huge preschool class this year, so we like to see that coming in. It solidifies, to me, that building project being done so we can put the middle school and high school all together, because now, more than ever, we need to close the building.”

All told, the Red Oak District has seen a decline in enrollment of over 100 students over the past three years, and further downsizing is likely necessary.

“We are going have to give serious consideration to see if there’s a configuration that will allow us to close Washington as well and do a two-campus system rather than three. It’s the long-term goal of the district anyway, and we’re going to have to see if we can speed that up a little bit,” Messinger said.

Messinger said this is the first time the resident enrollment is below 1,000 students, and discussions on the decline will be ongoing.

“We’ll figure out a plan to live through it, and hopefully we’ll have something rolled out in front of the school board prior to Christmas break so they can begin to make staffing decisions for next year.”

The Red Oak Express

2012 Commerce Drive
P.O. Box 377
Red Oak, IA 51566
Phone: 712-623-2566 Fax: 712-623-2568

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