Practically Speaking

I have already commented to Mr. Gehl about this issue. I gave an example of a some folks, bored of suburban life, moved out of the city to a condo in downtown Milwaukee. However, their children are still of school age and I believe they are still attending EBSD. I feel that those who move out of the district and do not contribute financially, should not be allowed to enroll their children in EBSD unless there is "room." By room, I mean EBSD has a classroom that is not at capacity, does not need to add sections or hire more teachers or keep staff that would not otherwise needed in order to accommodate the non-resident student. We certainly should not be building extra schools or classrooms to accommodate those numbers from out of the district. This is just common sense.

Kyle's reply: I like your definition of "room"! 

Many people make the same mistake that Kyle made in her statement that taxpayers must "kick in $7,500" for each Open Enrollment students.  This is a case of not understanding marginal versus average costs.  As Mr. Borch states on pg 27 of this week's Brookfield Now the marginal cost of educating an additional non resident student in the elementary level is $250-$400.  In other words the district receives over 6000 dollars and it only adds expenses of around 400 dollars.  Over 5000 dollars excess is available for programs!  In times of declining resident enrollment, Open Enrollment allows a district to keep beloved programs such as Music, Arts and Foreign Language.  Marginal costs can be explained like this:

Assume your child has a birthday party with a cake, clown, room rental

etc.  The room can hold 12, the cake feeds 12 etc.  You invite 10 kids.  The average cost per kid is $15  ($150 total cost/10 kids).  If you invite another kid will the party cost you $165?  In this example there is no marginal cost, in the school district minimal marginal cost exist for supplies and possibly books.  Decreasing non resident enrollment to reduce the cost of the proposed remodeled high schools is an option that allows for a smaller referendum dollar amount, but at the cost of what programs that will be lost?  Open Enrollment provides $2,664,963 to the operating budget (441 student * $6043)annually that can not be raised through taxes because it is outside of the revenue cap.  How will that gap be filled?  What will be cut from the districts offerings and how will that effect the the desirablity of the Elmbrook district?  

Kyle's reply: I do understand what you are saying, Ellen Mary. It is the classic line of rationale I have heard from the school district ever since I moved here in 1986. I just do not happen to agree with your assessment that all of these non-resident students are of "marginal cost" and don't cost us anything when you consider their numbers. Once in our system, they stay in our system, even in the grades where "extra room" is costing us.

Yes, adding a few to a kindergarten or 2nd grade classroom does not really impact the system all that much, but as the students mature, even 2-3 in a classroom adds a 10% workload burden to the teacher. That means less time to spend correcting your child's papers, less time to help your child in class, etc. The total number of non-resident students is presently 808! That is over 10% of our own resident school population. Certainly without these students in the system we could be looking at closing a school or at least cutting back on the number of classes given.

I would welcome a realistic, honest assessment of the burden and benefit that non-resident students pose to Elmbrook. While we are at it, we should be asking the question of why are New Berlin students still in our system? It made sense when their neighborhood elementary school on Sunnyslope, south of Greenfield, was farther away than our neighborhood school, Linfield, on Elm Grove Rd. just north of Greenfield. But Linfield has been closed now for 20+ years (?) and we have been busing those New Berlin students to Wisconsin Hills and now to Swanson for their elementary school. 

Based upon the 2007 Elmbrook School District Annual Report, in the 2006-2007 school year, their were 7662 total students enrolled.  782 of these were non-resident.  220 of those non-residents were in the high schools. That means 562 were in the elementary and middle schools. Do the math...that means the District has the equivalent of one elementary school just to educate non-resident students.  

 The administration and Board of Education just doesn't get it. This isn't adding students "on the margins", it is paying for a whole facility, the faculty, Admistration, and operational expenses for an entire school that is not required.

Kyle's reply: We are on the same page.  

Kyle and JJGD39,

Thanks for your responses.  You are right the flip side of the non resident issue is to close schools and to change the district boundry lines.  What Open Enrollment does is to fill in the holes across all of the elementary schools and to avoid huge variances of class size across the district.  Which elementary would you suggest closing and why?  In terms of an honest and realistic assesment of non residents there are many factors that one can consider. The tax reduction from Chapter 220 and the outside of the revenue cap revenue for Open Enrollment are revenue streams that we should not lightly dismiss. Is the community prepared to close a school or two and cut programs in exchange for chosing not to invite non residents?  Kyle, to your point about additional non resident students taking time away from my child, I would have to disagree  with your assumption that the class size would stay the same.  Some classes would no longer meet the criteria to be two or three sections leading to potential larger class sizes for my children.  Also as the total number of students decreases, the per student expenditures increase unless there are cuts in all of the overhead expenses.  For example:  Will the Adminstrators each take a 10% decrease in pay for less work with 10% fewer students?  Or do you eliminate entire positions?  

Kyle's reply: Hillside comes to mind as a school to close since it has a smaller capacity and is in need of improvements. As for all the questions you raise, we really need to make an accurate comparison between a district with very few non-resident students and one with over 10% non-resident students. Elmbrook has never done this to my knowledge. Until we know the facts, we will never make an intelligent, informed choice. It is very hard to swallow that 808 students are only filling in the empty spaces.

Kyle,

Would you be willing to take back your statement that taxpayers kick in $7,500 for each Open Enrollment student?  It appears from our conversation that you do understand average versus marginal costs.  I know that you do not believe Mr. Borch's professional answer of upto $5,000 net revenue (6000-400 revenue minus cost) per elementary student, but I don't think there is any rational financial way to support your assertion of a cost to taxpayers of $7,500 per Open Enrollment student. If you disagree, could you explain your calculation?  Average cost minus revenue received is not equal to the taxpayer's additional cost.  

Kyle's reply: Since the Elmbrook School District taxpayer must pay for the remaining costs after state and fed. aids for any student enrolled into our school district, I don't think we can say that those non-resident students are "free" or just money makers.

Average cost per student is just that, an average. If we call the open enrollment students "free" then who is the student who is really more expensive? Is it that the Chapter 220 students really cost us more than what we have been told? Or that our own resident per student cost should be calculated as being $14,000 - $15,000 per student?  If that is true, shouldn't we be asking why our per student costs are so high?

Until we get a better handle on just how much of that classroom space is truly "extra" I don't see how else to look at the costs per student. Again, since we do not reassess the enrollment of these non-resident students on a yearly--as room allows--basis, I just cannot swallow that they are not costing us anything. Who can believe that as they progress every year through our school system that there is that much extra space at every grade level, including the high schools?  Remember that every year there is probably a natural increase in enrollment of resident students from parents who decide to stop sending their child to private schools or quit homeschooling.

Ellen Mary: I am working on a reply to your last comment but need to gather a bit more information. I would have emailed you directly to let you know that, but because I have no idea who you are and have no way to reply directly to your comments, I must rely on this method of communication.