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District loses overall student count, gains open enrolled students

By Lana Bradstream 5 min read

Enrollment for the Marshalltown Community School District (MCSD) decreased for the 2023-24 school year.

During the regular Marshalltown Community School Board meeting on Monday, Director of Business Operations Randy Denham told the board about the number of students this year. He said it is Iowa law for public districts to count student enrollment on Oct. 1. The student count determines state funding -- the more students a district has, the more money is received from the state. The cost to educate a MCSD student during the 2023-24 school year is $7,641.

The legislature determines state aid for public districts during the first 30 days of the session.

"Those two are the main drivers to calculate funding received during the 2024-25 school year," Denham said.

There are 5,352 students enrolled in MCSD this year. Last year, there were 5,374 students, a loss of 22 students.

"This is a good news, bad news scenario," he said. "If you want to look at it as bad news, our certified enrollment, which is our budget enrollment count, did drop from last year to this year."

However, Denham said the total number of students served increased from 4,911 to 4,922 this year.

"We had a large increase in our open enrolled in from last year to this year of 38 students," he said.

Denham then broke down the open enrollment students -- those attending MCSD from outside the district, and MCSD residents attending other public schools. He said funding follows the students now, so there is a price tag attached to open enrollments.

"That expense of 419 students is about $3.2 million to the district," Denham said.

He said there are things to keep in mind for the future:

Supplemental state aid for the next fiscal year is not yet known;

The legislature will determine whether or not the district will receive a budget guarantee for next year, but the state aid would have to be 1.5 percent;

A two percent state aid increase to the district would equal new money of $645,436.

"This is the first piece of the puzzle," Denham said. "I know it's weird to think about the 2024-25 school year budget already in November, but that is just around the corner."

Superintendent Theron Schutte said the information that stuck out to him the most is the open enrollment in as the district gained 100 students since 2016.

"Open enrollment out has been decreasing and open enrollment in has been increasing during the course of that time," he said.

Board member Zach Wahl asked why the open enrollment increased. Schutte told him he believes people are paying attention to programs and opportunities in MCSD that other districts are not able to provide.

"One of the challenges I think, it becomes differentiated once you get to the middle school, high school levels," he said. "People are oftentimes making these decisions when their kids are entering school but they are not seeing the back half of that educational journey where there is significant difference in what kids can have access to within a larger district versus a smaller district -- particularly with a lot of nice enhancements and improvements we have made over time."

Board member Karina Hernandez asked how the students are counted in open enrollment if students attending other districts travel to MCSD for a particular course or activity, and Denham told her those students are not counted. The districts generally have sharing agreements and the other district is billed for the MCSD course or activity.

Board member Jan McGinnis asked how home school students who participate in something like the MCSD band or orchestra are counted. Schutte said those students are counted as dual enrolled.

Schutte described the enrollment in the last few years as a roller coaster. There was a significant decrease after the 2018 tornado. There was a rebound in 2019, and he added there was a similar decrease in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the derecho.

"We're building back toward where we were pre tornado and pandemic, but we're not quite there yet," Schutte said.

In other business, the board:

• Approved the plans for the Marshalltown High School Career and Technical Education (CTE) wing construction project. They also received an overview of the project, as well as the high school HVAC project, from Kevin Eipperle with FEH Design. Immediately afterward, a public hearing was held to approve the plans and contract for the CTE project, which has an estimated cost of $12.2 million. The increase in the project total from $11 million is due to casework and paving replacement and adding new power and data. Eipperle told the board he has seen the price of paving materials fluctuate in the last year. He does not know what the price will be next month, but if concrete can be acquired, he added that would be great. A bidding contract is expected to be awarded on Dec. 18. Eipperle said they are shooting for a completion date before the fall of 2024.

• Approved the sale of $13 million in revenue bonds to Webster Bank of Columbus, Ohio for the CTE and the tornado safe room projects. Wahl abstained from the vote.

• Approved the purchase of two buses from Hoglund Bus Sales for $300,594.

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Contact Lana Bradstream at 641-753-6611 ext. 210 or

lbradstream@timesrepublican.com.

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