RAYMOND, WI — The Raymond Board of Education with a 2-1 vote on Monday, Jan. 15 limited the number of open enrollment students the district will accept next year, and it could have a negative effect on its budget.
Board members Amanda Faluschi and Audrey Kostuch voted to approve admitting just six open enrollment students for the 2024-2025 school year. Amy Helvick dissented. Neither Gwen Keller nor Janell Wise were present and were marked absent and excused.
Keller and Wise are currently targeted for recall, and they are challenging the signatures collected against them. As the board clerk, Faluschi is tasked with determining the validation of both the signatures collected and Keller’s and Wise’s challenges. State statute requires her decision be rendered on Thursday, Jan. 18.
Limited open enrollment could negatively impact Raymond budget
The number of students enrolled at Raymond School is 398, down from 431 during the previous school year. Of that 398, about 134 are open enrolled, a full 34% of the student body.
Open enrollment allows families to transfer students to school districts outside their own. The state pays the receiving district a certain amount for each open-enrollment student.
For the 2023-2024 school year, the State of Wisconsin paid Raymond $8,618 for each student open enrolling there, for a total of $1,154,812. The state next school year will transfer an estimated $8,962 to Raymond for each open enrolled student the school accepts, according to the state Department of Public Instruction website.
In the last few years, the number of open enrolled students has increased year-over-year, save one:
Three seats each will be available in first and fourth grades based on interim Superintendent Dr. James Heiden’s recommendation he said was derived from conversations with interim Principal Peter Kempen and Dana Marty, teaching and learning coordinator.
Students who open enroll at Raymond would not lose their seats.
Heiden confirmed while the board went into a closed session that he did not confer with teachers before recommending the proposal to the board. Heiden has only been on the job for about two weeks, and both Kempen and Marty are also new to the district.
Ten eighth-grade students will depart Raymond for high school at the end of the school year. Not filling each of those ten seats will cost the district up to $36,000 in open enrollment funding.
One parent who asked that we not use their name questioned how that $36,000 could have been used.
“The district could use that money to increase salaries or to help fund an additional teacher or to create a STEAM space, anything, really,” they said. “I don’t understand why we don’t want to welcome more open-enrollment students.”
State aid for school districts is also determined by population; more students generally means more money from the state. School districts perform the annual third-Friday count in September, where every student physically in school is counted to help determine the amount of state aid each district receives.
Open-enrollment students who leave after the count still impact these figures. Their presence in the current school year impacts state aid, making the limited number of open enrollment seats an additional detriment to the district’s revenue.
“There is more than enough room to bring in open enrollment students to fill classrooms,” Board candidate Dorrae Moonen added. “We have good teachers. Why wouldn’t we want to share them and help the district financially at the same time?”
Open enrollment availability limited
Additional seats in kindergarten, second, third and fifth grades were not proposed and neither were seats for middle school grades.
There was a brief discussion about adding up to six sixth-grade seats to create three sixth-grade classrooms of 19 students each instead of two classes of 26. Ultimately, those seats were not in the motion to approve accepting new open enrollment students.
Kempen said that as kids age, their class sizes increase, with typical middle school classes averaging between 25 and 28 students.
“But not in Raymond,” Helvick said, with murmurs from attendees indicating they agreed with her.
Here is how the classroom population will look next year compared to this year, assuming each open enrollment seat is filled:
By this count, and filling each K-5 classroom to 20 without adding staff, Raymond could welcome another 22 open enrollment students in addition to the six approved by the board, adding another $197,164 to district revenues for the 2024-2025 school year.
These students also factor into the third Friday count and potentially increase the amount Raymond receives in state aid.
Incoming 4K students for the 2024-2025 school year were not included in the discussion or the vote because Heiden said he didn’t know how to forecast those numbers accurately.
He did confirm with a group of parents while the board was in closed session that families wishing to enroll their 4K students would be accepted on a first-come, first-served basis after in-district students fill seats.
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