Enrollment report shows an increase of 192 students
Kids are continuing to pour into the Morgan Hill School District, despite naysayers who worry public education is losing out to private schools.
Enrollment in the district is up for the third year in a row, according to Arlene Machado, director of educational technology and information systems, who presented a report to School Board trustees Oct. 25.
Based on the first month of school, the district had a total of 8,706 students in the district. Last year’s actual enrollment was 8,514.
The district receives funds from the state based on student attendance. At the end of the second period during the school year, which comes after the eighth month of school, the actual attendance number for that month is used to figure the district’s Average Daily Attendance funds for the following year.
Last year, at the end of the second period, the district had an ADA of 8,206.99 while the year before, it was 8,064.14. For each ADA, the district receives approximately $5,000; this year’s funding is based on the 8,206.99 multiplied by the amount per ADA, or approximately $41,034,950.
Typically, the district enrollment fluctuates just after school opens, as some families do not return their children to school until after Labor Day. So classes may be shuffled and reassigned after the holiday. This usually creates upset parents each year, who come before the board demanding a better system so the class and school shifts are not necessary. This year, the board heard from one parent, Ola Sjolund.
He offered to help trustees come up with a “better system” so students would not have to be moved after becoming connected to their teacher, their class and their school.
“We did meet with families of the students we needed to move,” Machado said. “Some of them choose to go into our home-schooling program. Some of them, while not happy with the move, took the news well and felt their child could adjust. We don’t want to have to do this with any child. Every year, we reevaluate our system to try and refine it. We’ve talked with other districts, and could not fine one that had a better system.
In case enrollment continues to rise, the district uses temporary teachers hired at the beginning of the year and substitute teachers to create more classes. Temporary teachers typically are on one-year contracts with the district.
The district uses substitutes in the beginning of the year to fill the gap between projected enrollment and actual enrollment. At the end of each school year, the district makes a projection for the following year’s enrollment, based in part on advancing each class of students to the next year plus an average amount to allow for new students.
“We hire substitutes when we are not sure if we will get an abundance of enrollment over what we have projected,” said Machado. “If it turns out the enrollment doesn’t show up, we can tell the substitutes that we are no longer in need of their services. It helps us out the first few weeks or so.”
One difficulty in staffing schools, she said, is that not all families notify the district when they move or put their child in a school out of the district, and some new students may not even register for school until the first day or even after Labor Day.
Some years there are special circumstances that make staffing even more of a challenge and cause major student shuffles. The year a “mini-Barrett” was created on the campus of Paradise Valley Elementary to relieve elementary crowding before Barrett Elementary was completed was chaotic for many families. Barrett opened in 2001. Mini-Barrett occupied the Paradise Valley campus during the 2000-2001 school year.
When Sobrato High opened last year, a unique set of problems was created with ninth graders back at the high school and many parents and students requesting transfers from their home school of Sobrato to Live Oak.
Marilyn Dubil covers education and law enforcement for The Times. Reach her at (408) 779-4106 ext. 202 or at md****@mo*************.com.
