District Explains Open Enrollment Numbers

Close only counts in horseshoes an hand grenades....well and nukes, too...right?
Well...we can admit when we're wrong...unlike some others we know.
And we were wrong.
It appeared that the old goose noodler had paid a visit to the Open Enrollment portion of the 2011-12 budget. However, with some added explanation, that is not the case.
But...you know what?  Being wrong ain't so bad.  Because in the end, we receive a fuller explanation for and accounting of our tax dollars.
And that's a good thing.

Deputy District Administrator and Business Manager Phil Frei sent us the spreadsheet at right in response to our questions about open enrollment numbers.  One of our questions concerned the accuracy of statements in the Open Enrollment Situation Report each March that "less than half of those that apply to enter or leave the district actually follow through".  Frei provided the following explanation in support of the spreadsheet.  We added the detail regarding abbreviations used.

Basically, what you are missing is that the "applicants" are new to the OE system, therefore the existing OE students don't need to reapply (unless they are changing levels for example, elem to MS).   I tried to show this to you on the new sheet.   The % of applicants that follow thru for "in" is  19% and for "out" is   25%. We only get the full DPI amount if the student attends a full year.  Many OE students stop OE during the year and then we don't get the full DPI amount. Let me know if you have any more Q's, OE is a complex and bureaucracy issue. 
-- Phil Frei

Our thanks to Mr. Frei for clearing this up.

Where's The Money Hidden NOW?

Realizing that the community is starting to figure things out, the district is looking for new places to stash money, which only leads to raising your property taxes higher than need be.  This money is not being used to fund educational initiatives, the district has already rejected that idea unless they are allowed to raise the tax levy increase above 3.5%.  So what will the stashed cash be used for?  Technological toys? Candy?

The latest place to focus on is the line item #382 for "Inter-district Payments".  This is largely the place where open enrollments fall.  What makes it tricky though (harder to follow) is that Open Enrollment is a double-edged sword.  One has to consider TWO budget line items:  one for revenue (students transferring INTO SPASD) and then expenses (students transferring OUT of SPASD).

How much State Aid Do We Receive/Lose Per "Open-Enrolled" Student?
There's no math here.  No figuring out cost per student or anything like that.  DPI simply sets an amount regardless of whether a student transfers in or out.

DPI Open enrollment funding memo January 2011
This year, 2011-12, open enrollment transfer amount = $6,948 (estimate) per transfer (in/out).
Last year, 2010-11, the per student open enrollment transfer amount = $6,665 (final).

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What is the 2011-12 Open Enrollment Situation?
 Mar 21, 2011 - FINANCE COMMITTEE MEETING 6:30 p.m., Chair: Jim McCourt
 Subject  Action on 2011-12 Open Enrollment Applications
 Report prepared by:  Phil Frei

We're (still) a growing district
We have a brand new Taj Mah High School
Last year our net OE expenses DROPPED
...and you expect us to believe we'll have a record net OE expense?
HELP US UNDERSTAND!

HISTORY/SITUATION/RELATED ACTIONS
Each year, the District receives open enrollment applications to attend Sun Prairie Area School District (SPASD) and also to leave the District.

The District had 97 students apply to attend SPASD .  This is an increase of 21 students over last year’s applicants.
The District had 150 students applying to attend other districts.  This is an increase of 32 students from last year’s applicants.

Next year DeForest Area School District will start a 4K program.  Since many Sun Prairie Area School District children attend pre-schools in DeForest, we received many open enrollment requests out to attend 4K programming.

Typically, less than half of the students who apply for open enrollment actually attend or leave.
So....we have 97 applying to COME IN (more revenue for us) and 150 applying to leave (more EXPENSE for us).
That's a net effect of 53 students LEAVING the district... IF they all leave (and Phil Frei says that, historically, "less than half" enter/leave.
If our estimated Open Enrollment Transfer Aid per student  is $6,948 then that means we need to budget for a net  EXPENSE of $368,244 more than last year...right? But we're only budgeting $317, 567 more than last year. That makes it LOOK like we're UNDER-budgeting by $50,677
 But let's not forget the mantra we hear every year and was included in the 3-21-11 Situation Report:

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 "Typically, less than half of the students who apply for open enrollment actually attend or leave."

           ----- Report to Finance Committee by Phil Frei 3-21-11

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If the net effect is only half of what applications suggest, then it would seem that the net would be a loss of only 27 students, at a net additional expense (over 2010-11) of $187,596.
And THAT now makes it appear that there's a lot of extra money in the budget hidden in the open enrollment area.


...and THAT, people, would pay for nearly 8,000 hours of the RTI tutoring, which is needed so very much more than starting a Mandarin Chinese program.


The sum of the parts equals the whole.
Look at Open Enrollment Revenues
The district is budgeting $600,000 of "income " (Revenue side of the budget/line #345) an increase of about $185,000 or 27 new kids transferring into the district

Then look at the Open Enrollment Expenses
The district is budgeting $1,089,950 of "cost" (Expense side of the budget/line #382) an increase of about $317,567 or 46 new kids transferring OUT of the district

Does something smell rather fishy?

For the 2010-11 budget last year, the district budgeted for a net $482,785 OUT.  But...when all was said and done, the result (unaudited, of course) shows that our net "loss" was only $357,744.  And that means that the district had a budget surplus of $122,000 due to "over-budgeting" expenses due to open enrollment.


For the 2011-12 budget year, the district is budgeting for a net 489,950 OUT.  Last year we saw a decrease in net open enrollment cost for the first time in several years.  Suppose it had anything to do with the new high school?????  So why are we projecting a nearly half million dollar net loss when last year the amount was little more than $350,000.  Wouldn't one suppose that the trend would go the other way?
And why tell us that "less than 50% actually follow through on their transfer requests year on and year out if we're not actually using that information in our budgeting?

Open Enrollment- a Closer Look

A special thanks to one of the "WE" for putting this together.

The Wisconsin State Journal recently put togetheran article, that appeared on the front page regarding Open Enrollments in Madison Area schools(Open enrollment numbers for all Dane County school districts). For those who don’t know what Open Enrollment is and its effects on a school district, we can help. Open enrollment is when a student applies to attend a school in a different school district than where they live.

This is done for a variety of reasons; but the focus of the article was the Madison Area School District and their increase in Open Enrollment requests. The report suggests that the primary reason that students open enroll OUT of the school district where they live is because their home district is not meeting their needs and they are dissatisfied. From our experience the report is dead on with this assessment.

So what is the big deal with kids leaving a school district via Open Enrollment? First, when a student leaves the district for another district that student takes with them the funding that is provided by the State to the district to pay for their education. It’s a loss of revenue to the tune of roughly $10,000 per year/per student! Second, if a school district has a high number of students leaving under open enrollment it may be a sign of some problem in the district that is causing the students' parents to seek a different school somewhere else.
[SP-EYE: Anyone ever catch that short-lived Animal Planet series about an ER doctor specializing in snakebite victims? His tag line was "time is tissue". With open enrollments, the tag line is "losing kids is losing money"]

Back to the Madison Metropolitan School District. They are so concerned that their Open Enrollments out of the district are increasing they decided to survey the parents their reason behind the decision. What a novel idea! It seems like MMSD is saying, “Let’s see what’s going on to see if there is something we can do better or if it is just a trend that is beyond our control.”

So where does the SPASD fall compared to area school. The article places SPASD second in terms of net efflux from the district. The only difference here is that Sun Prairie seems to just accept the fact that there are some dissatisfied students and parents that are looking in other places for their needs. Unfortunately with the outward movement of these students so goes the money.

I’m sure the district will spin this as something that is inevitable [SP-EYE: We're taking bets that Dr. Culver will offer a spinning rebuttal in his District Super Adminisintendentrator comments at the June 8 school board meeting. Odds are 7-2, any takers?] and that there are students coming into the district under open enrollment that offsets the net loss. That might be true to a certain extent but wouldn’t it seem prudent to do as the MMSD did and survey the parents of students open enrolling out of the school district to see if there is some common thread or reason why they are leaving the district? Perhaps there is something that could be done to minimize or reduce the movement of students out of the district? I guess we will never know because the School Board and district Administration have talked about surveying these families for the last two years but it is nothing more that lip service to those who express concern over this issue.

The taxpayers of this district should demand that the school board, our elected officials, should require that the district survey the parents of students that have open enrolled out of the district over the last three years to see why they are doing so. Further the DO should be contacting the parents who have pulled their students from the SPASD and are now enrolled in private schools (another way the district loses state funding).

Unfortunately we think the issue comes back to the old adage, “Don’t ask a question if you really don’t want to know the answer.” After all what do you think the parents would say in their survey response that left the school district after the latest boundary change? We are pretty sure we have an idea and it is nothing that is too favorable of the school district. Our take on this is that while the district has a tremendous pool of teachers and support staff most residents are dissatisfied with the get-what-we-want-at-all-costs administration and spend-happy school board.

So it goes with SPASD, highlight and embellish the positive things in the district and bury the negative. If you are concerned over lost revenue and increasing taxes please contact all of the school board members and request that they have the school district do a detailed and meaningful survey of parents who open enroll their children out of the district and address the things in their control to stop the bleeding and the exodus of students from the district.
To contact the school board with your thoughts on this issue use the e-mail links provide in the menubar on the right.

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