Ashland City School Board ditches open enrollment, with caveats

ASHLAND — The Ashland City School Board debated the district’s open enrollment at two separate meetings before reaching a conclusion to do away with it at Monday night’s session.

Board members unanimously voted to no longer allow open enrollment unless a child meets one of the following conditions:

The child has a parent/guardian who works for the district.
The child is a kindergarten through 11th grade student who is already open-enrolled.
The child is a sibling of a student who is already open-enrolled.
The child was previously regularly-enrolled, but has moved out of the district and still wishes to attend Ashland City Schools.

“That is our slow gauge toward trying to get out from under what would, to the naked eye, look like a $1,005,000 deficit after last year,” Supt. Steve Paramore said.

That number comes from the district’s Ohio Fair School Funding Plan, which determines the cost of educating a child in the district using a mix of state funds and local property/income taxes.

The plan says the base amount per pupil — or cost of educating one district student — is $8,110 for fiscal year 2026, with $4,918 of that coming from local taxes.

However, a student who does not live in the district but attends the school, only receives the state fund portion of that amount, which is $3,192. That’s because the student’s parents do not pay local taxes to the district.

The difference in costs leaves the school district responsible for paying to educate those students.

“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 at the March 10 meeting.

Board President Pam Mowry said, “We understand the enrichment to our district of open enrollment. We understand the value of letting parents choose where their children go to school, but at this time with our understanding of future funding, the board felt like this is a first step.

“I hope it’s a first step in the last step toward trying to, head off what appears to be a decrease in funding for open-enrolled students.”

Mowry clarified this policy is only in effect for one year, and the board will review it every year.

Other business

In other business, the board approved a roughly $31,000 contract with Magic Schools Inc. to provide artificial intelligence services to students.

The AI platform is designed for educators and students with safety restrictions top of mind, Treasurer Kyle Klinger said.

The board also accepted two bids for two projects in district. Bogner Corporation came in with the lowest bid for construction of a new playground at Taft Intermediate School for $196,640.

Byrne & Jones came in with the lowest bid for Ashland High School’s softball field improvements at $402,142. Those improvements will include new turf, netting, bullpens and concrete work.

Paramore also told the board the district sustained some broken windows from fallen trees during high winds last week. Those windows have been repaired, but Paramore said he plans to remove some other risky trees this summer to keep the district’s buildings safe.