ASHLAND — The number of open-enrolled students at Ashland City Schools may start to fizzle out over the next several years if the Ashland City School Board votes to do away with open enrollment.
Ashland enrolled in the Ohio Fair School Funding Plan in 2022, a model designed to calculate the cost of educating a child, using a mix of state funds and local property/income taxes.
The plan says the base amount per pupil, meaning the cost of educating one student in Ashland City Schools, is $8,110. The local capacity per pupil, meaning the amount of local taxes funding one child’s education, is $4,918.
That base amount per pupil is modeled after a student who lives in the school district; the number for a student who does not live in the district, but attends the school, is different.
The state’s funding plan for Ashland schools allots $3,191 of state funding per open-enrolled student: a nearly $5,000 difference between the two types of students.
“This school year, we receive 39.4% of our funding from the state foundation— so from the state. Next year, that will drop to 33%,” Supt. Steve Paramore told the board.
“[There are] 205 open-enrolled students. So, in a year, if we were to receive $8,110 for them, that would be $1.66 million We only receive $1,005,671,” Paramore said.
The difference in costs leaves the school district responsible for paying to educate those students whose families do not reside in the district and therefore do not pay taxes toward the district.
“I don’t want this to be a picture of ‘man, I’m really unhappy that we have 205 open-enrolled students.’ I just want to be really transparent about the state misfunding those students,” Paramore said.
He brought the hot topic in front of the board on Monday evening because students must have open-enrollment forms postmarked by April 1.
What would a revised policy look like?
He wants the board to consider approving a policy that revises the open-enrollment policy prior to that date to start saving the district money sooner rather than later.
No decisions were made at the meeting, but Paramore told the board he plans to come before them at the March 23 meeting with a recommended action.
His recommended policy change includes allowing open-enrollment for a select group of people, including:
- Children of Ashland City Schools staff members who reside outside the district.
- Students who are already open-enrolled in the district (there are 205).
- Siblings of students who are already open-enrolled at Ashland.
“There are just tons of success stories about our open-enrolled students, among our families and students that live in the district, but we don’t have any control over how the state decides that that’s what an open-enrolled student is worth, which is sad, but we don’t,” Paramore said.
The school district, along with others in the state, is also battling new state legislature that caps property tax revenue growth on top of “flatlined” state revenue from the 2022 funding plan.
“We’ve been pushed deep into the guarantee that we would need hundreds of students to enroll to get out of that guarantee, but we won’t see any inflationary increase from state revenue. Those are our two biggest sources of revenue,” Paramore said.
Paramore spoke with several superintendents of nearby school districts, many of which want to make a similar change, including Wooster City Schools. But Paramore noted that from what he last heard, that change will not be made this school year.
“I’m not saying that this [state legislature] won’t change, I hope it does, but if it doesn’t, I don’t believe we can sit here and just bite off $1 million a year for people who didn’t choose to live in the Ashland City School District,” Board President Pam Mowry said.
Board member Greg Summers asked if there were other alternatives from ending open enrollment completely.
“I don’t love the idea of killing open enrollment. I think it’s a great opportunity for the district, I think it helps so many things in our district. But I also don’t love the $1 million loss,” Summers said.
Paramore said the district could charge tuition for open-enrolled students, but he was not a fan of that option.
The board will discuss the matter further and decide a policy at the next meeting.
The board also approved updating several other standard policies reflective of state legislature changes, including implementing a new AI policy.