by Dave DeMars
news@thenewsleaders.com
In a separate item at the Oct. 24 Sauk Rapids-Rice School Board meeting, Superintendent Dan Bittman shared enrollment information with the board and also discussed at length the open-enrollment policy and how it’s administered in School District 47.
The district monitors the enrollment in its schools on a monthly basis, Bittman said. This is done so administrators know how to best administer the programs and curriculum required in the district and how to administer the open-enrollment requirement. Enrollment now is 800 to 900 more students than attended Sauk Rapids-Rice Schools just five years ago, Bittman said.
Open enrollment
The open-enrollment program is required by state statute, Bittman told the board, but the local board determines how it operates and is administered. The board must adopt by resolution specific standards for acceptance or rejection of open-enrollee students. Considerations such as capacity of class, program or building may be used as limitations. Criteria such as previous academic achievement, English proficiency, physical disabilities or previous disciplinary problems may not be used to limit open enrollment.
Sauk Rapids-Rice is an integration district. That, Bittman said, means it’s a site that has less diversity than neighboring districts, primarily St. Cloud.
“Because of that, we have an integration and achievement plan through the state,” Bittman said. “But a different statute says if you are an integration district, you need to accept open enrollment.”
ISD 47 receives $5.2 million through the open-enrollment program, so it’s a significant amount, Bittman noted. At the same time, about 500 students leave the district to open-enroll at other districts for various reasons, and that costs the district dollars it could use for its own staff and programs.
How it works
Enrollment of both resident and non-resident students is regularly tallied. Once the number of resident students is determined and they are slotted into the various grade levels and classes, the district then determines how many non-resident students to accept and into what programs and schools they may be assigned.
“We continue to look at enrollment closely, and to monitor that for individuals who are not resident students,” Bittman said. “Once our resident students are placed, we then adjust our open enrollment to where we put them in classes where we have resources and staff.”
What that means to an open-enrollee is they may not get the choice of school or program they want. Bittman gave an example: A parent may want to enroll a child at Pleasantview Elementary School in the third grade, but if that grade level is at capacity in Pleasantview, the student may be assigned to another school, Rice perhaps, or simply denied open-enrollment access altogether.
Open-enrollment students are not transported by the district, Bittman explained. That is an added expense and responsibility for the open-enrollee.
Many parents are concerned about class sizes, Bittman said. The belief is smaller class sizes equal improved achievement. That simply isn’t borne out by the research, he added.
“The research does not support achievement being the benefit for lower class sizes,” he said. “Management, relationships, all of those things would make a huge difference, but what the research wouldn’t say is if you had a class of 30 and a class of 27, there would not be a significant change in achievement.”
ISD 47 continues to have smaller class sizes as one of its priorities. That is especially true in the primary grades. At the high school level, class size is less important since a significant number of students will go to college and dealing with larger class sizes is seen as preparation for larger class sizes in college.
