Open Enrollment

Today's WSJ fronts a story on the increasing trends in open enrollment in local schools.

A year ago Madison changed the rules and allowed more students to open enroll out of the district. Monona Grove saw a significant increase in open enrollment applications, a trend that has continued for the upcoming school year. This year we have a net increase of 94 students through open enrollment, for next year we have accepted 174 incoming students while 54 MG residents have been approved to leave. Recent history shows that a significant percentage of the those approved change their minds before school starts so we don't know what the final numbers will be.

On a percentage basis McFarland and Marshall are the biggest gainers, but MG has the highest number of accepted OE students for next year. Our proximity to Madison is certainly a factor, but given the variety of options these numbers indicate that many parents have a positive view of our district.

How does open enrollment impact the district finances? 94 net OE students bring with them about $600,000 in funding. For the most part OE students are accomodated with existing facilities and staff, adding a few students to existing classes. We use the class size goals outlined in policy to determine the maximum number of OE students to accept (State law generally requires us to accept these students provided we have room.) The differential increased cost due to these OE students is small. Next year is a bit of an exception: we received enough kindergarten applicants to more than fill an additional section. The board accepted these students on the calculation that the OE funds would more than pay for the additional cost of an added section (primarily the cost of an additional teacher.)