Rising Enrollment Numbers on Board Agenda

As of September 30, 189 additional students were enrolled in the Rapid City Area Schools compared to September, 2008. This 1.4 percent increase is the largest in several years. Surprisingly, the increase was not fueled by the state’s new mandatory attendance law, which requires students to stay in school until they are 18 or graduate. Instead, increases at the elementary level pushed the numbers upward. Over the last four years, elementary school enrollment has risen more than 8 percent.

With the new enrollment figures the District is running well ahead of the projections provided by MGT of America in its June 2008 assessment of the District’s facilities needs. MGT estimated that elementary enrollment would not reach 6,222 until 2017. With 6,326 elementary students enrolled last month, the District has already exceeded that projection. According to Superintendent Peter Wharton, other districts around the state are also seeing increases in elementary enrollment. “Sioux Falls, for example, had a big increase in kindergarten this year.” This growth in enrollments makes efforts to deal with long-run facilities needs even more urgent for the Board and the Administration.

District Reaches Out

High school enrollments were up by 39 students in September compared to September 2008. Anticipating implementation of the state’s new mandatory attendance law, the District reached out this past summer to 16- and 17-year olds who had dropped out of high school. Under the auspices of Project U-Turn, district representatives knocked on the doors of nearly 300 families in Rapid City to  encourage students to come back to school voluntarily rather than be forced back into the classroom by the courts. “Many of the approximately 70 returning students are a product of those home visits,” says Katie Bray, assistant superintendent for student achievement.

The net increase of only 39 students at the high school level is far short of the 200-300 that some board members and administrators had predicted. The full impact of the mandatory attendance law, however, may not be felt for some time. According to Wharton, young people affected by the law are still filtering into the District. “Some walk in off the street. Some are referred by the courts. Others came from our recruiting efforts.” The District is working to ensure that all of these students who have come back to school get personal attention. “Each returning student,” says Bray, “is taken through a process and a personal learning plan is created.”

Board to Consider Joining Funding Fight

In addition to the presentation on enrollments, the Board will also vote on two options for joining the effort to seek a ruling from the courts that the Legislature is falling short of its constitutional mandate to provide sufficient funding for education. The first resolution proposes that the Rapid City Area Schools join the South Dakota Coalition of Schools, which represents 92 school districts in the state. The organization commissioned the 2005 “Adequacy Study” of school funding. This resolution proposes that the District make a $10,000 contribution to the Coalition to support its efforts “to ensure that the constitutional rights of the children within our district are being protected.”  The second resolution also proposes that the District join the Coalition and provides for paying annual dues of $600.

New Budget Format to be Presented

Business Manager Dave Janak will also be presenting the new template for the District’s budget. The new template was developed by consultant Jeff Partridge to make it easier for citizens and board members to understand the policy priorities implicit in the budget document. For more information on this plan, read Kayla Gahagan’s October 10, 2009 article in the Rapid City Journal.

The new enrollment figures and the Coalition resolutions will be discussed by the Board of Education at its regular meeting on Thursday, October 15. To accommodate the schedule for parent/teacher conferences, the meeting will start at 7:30 p.m. at the City/School Administration Center on Sixth Street. A copy of the full agenda is available on the District’s website. Enrollments at specific schools can be viewed here on the District’s enrollment report: Enrollment Report 9 29 09

Will Board Study Session Move District Forward?

With major facilities issues on the front burner, the Rapid City Board of Education will meet Saturday morning, August 22 at General Beadle Elementary to talk about the future of Central High School, the possible construction of a new middle school in Rapid Valley and a plan to convert Dakota Middle School to a special use high school. The board will also talk about changing school attendance boundaries in an effort to get more efficient use of the district’s existing facilities.

The conversation tomorrow has been billed as a “Ten Year Comprehensive Facilities Plan Discussion.” More than a year after releasing a consultant’s report describing the condition and suitability of all of the district’s schools, the district has yet to release a timetable or a spending plan for the projects delineated in the report. According to board members and administrators, Business Manager Dave Janak will present an analysis of the district’s capital financing capability at the meeting tomorrow. With an overview of what the district can afford, the board can begin to establish some priorities.

In the meantime, despite the lack of a five- or ten-year budget, the district has moved forward with plans to renovate Central High School for an estimated $42 million. Many community members have expressed concerns about the price of the renovation, particularly if it leads to an even larger student population at Central. Advocates for a third high school would like to see a more modest plan for renovation coupled with a strategy for reducing the overall population at the district’s two main high schools. Some board members are likely to press for reducing the scope of the project at tomorrow’s meeting.

The board is also scheduled to discuss its goals and priorities for the 2009 – 2010 academic year. For the past several years, the board’s main goals have been tied to student achievement as measured by scores on the Dakota STEP test. Year after year, however, the district has failed to achieve the board’s goals, leaving some to wonder how meaningful the goal-setting process really is. In fact, it appears that the District’s goal setting has simply become a process for internalizing the State Department of Education’s expectations under No Child Left Behind. Many parents and community members may wonder whether there ought to be goals that reflect the concerns of the community as well.

The community is welcome to attend the board study session in the Multi-Purpose Room at General Beadle Elementary (10 Van Buren Street) from 8 a.m. to 12 noon. The agenda is available here: 08-22-09 Special Meeting agenda.

Board Considers New Policies at Meeting Tonight

Members of the Board of Education for the Rapid City Area Schools will consider changes to District policies on attendance, nondiscrimination, dual enrollment and emergency evacuation plans for handicapped students tonight. The board switched is regular board meeting from Thursday to Tuesday this week to allow board members to attend the annual Associated School Boards of South Dakota convention in Sioux Falls.

The policy changes on attendance reflect the new state law that requires students to remain in school until they are 18 or graduate. The policy outlines the responsibilities of parents and school officials when it comes to enforcing the state’s mandatory attendance law.  New language also highlight’s the District’s ability to initiate truancy proceedings if students and parents fail to comply with the law.

Changes to the policy on nondiscrimination make it clear that students cannot be discriminated against because they are pregnant or married. Meanwhile, a new policy on emergency evacuation of handicapped students calls on the school officials to prepare an emergency evacuation plan at the beginning of each school year for handicapped students.

In addition to policy changes, the Administration will also present the schedule for the development of next year’s budget. Business manager Dave Janak has prepared budget assumptions for the board that call for a 12 percent fund balance. The plan also assumes that if any further budget cuts are needed they wil come first from support functions, rather than instruction. Within instruction, priority is given to programs that 1) support core graduation requirements; 2) provide the greatest impact on student achievement, and 3) align with the district’s mission and philosophy. The Administration also suggests that capital spending will revolve around the Master Facilities Plan developed last year by a nationally recognized consulting team.

The board meeting starts at 5:30 p.m., Tuesday, August 4 in the Council Chambers in the City/School Administration Building at 300 Sixth Street. A copy of the agenda is available here: Board agenda 8409