Are we talking about the same enrollment problem that has been known for years and is the constant talk of almost every school district around the state, and most of the country with the exception of places like Naples, FL and Las Vegas, NV who are experiencing a huge boom in population?
Is enrollment down in the Menomonee Falls School District’? Yes.
Are declining enrolments a direct result of nationwide and local demographics? Yes.
Are we loosing some students to other districts? Yes. Other districts are loosing students to us as well.
Are they leaving because of our School Districts performance? Yes, some, but all School Districts have dissatisfied parents who for one reason or another move their kids. Believe it or not, some even move their kids over athletics. Our exodus of resident students dropped this year by about 50% if I recall correctly.* I hope that is because we are improving in some people's mind. Primarily, we are loosing students to home schooling, an excellent parochial school system (Lutheran and Catholic), virtual schools – in a word competition. *I have ammended my struck out statement, which was way off to 3%. Mrs. Taubenheim was correct in pointing this out and I am sorry for taking too long to point this out. I will provide the correct answer in the comments below.
Are we filling the gaps by adding more Chapter 220 and open enrollment students? No.
Last year your School Board passed a policy that capped all nonresident enrollment to 10% or less. Last month we voted that nonresident enrollment would be set at about 9.7%. Dr. Marty suggested that we continue to accept Chapter 220 students on a limited basis to send a message that we will support this program. After much research and thought, I absolutely support that decision, as does every board member. So we added 5 students and our overall nonresident population is still under 10%.
Will 4-K help with declining enrollment? Yes, of course. See the Brookfield 4-K debate here: http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=686040
What can we do to address the statewide enrollment problem? In my opinion, we need to improve our “customer retention” abilities. That is, we need to work harder to keep current resident students and parents dedicated to stay and grow the school district. (More on this at another time.) The Superintendent in Wauwatosa put a plan together to do just that. We also need to make the district more competitive against educational alternatives. Parents have many good choices these days. They can change their child's educational venue as easily as changing banks. When schools compete, parents and students win.
