The unofficial average daily membership numbers for schools show Marion Community Schools has seen another decrease in student population while other districts have increased. Although the city school system’s losses have slowed.
MCS is down 229 students, Marion Superintendent Steve Edwards said. He said the unofficial average daily membership (ADM) number was 3,948.5; the Indiana Department of Education counts each kindergarten student as half.
“Our loss certainly doesn’t rival last year’s loss,” he said of the about 380 enrollment drop from last year.
Much of the growth in students in the districts outside of Marion can be partially attributed to an increase in non-resident students attending those schools.
Edwards said he knows that some of those 229 students have transferred to other schools in the area but said students simply moving out of the county or state contributed to the reductions in students as well.
The unofficial ADM number for Mississinewa Community Schools was 2,2277.5, Oak Hill United School Corp.’s was 1,514, Eastbrook Community Schools’ was 1,686, and the unofficial ADM number for Madison-Grant United School Corp. was 1,427.
The IDOE said the ADM numbers received from the Friday count day are still unofficial though as items still need to be reviewed and there is an appeal process that can take place as well.
It appears other districts may be benefiting from the loss at MCS.
Other district superintendents have previously said they can’t be sure where majority of their non-resident students come from, but they can be sure those numbers have increased.
Oak Hill saw the largest increase. Oak Hill Superintendent Joel Martin said the district took in 106 new non-resident students this year.
“If it weren’t for that number we’d be no where near that 30 plus,” he said of the increased ADM number.
Eastbrook saw an increase of about 40 non-resident students, Eastbrook Superintendent Jerry Harshman said. He echoed Martin’s reasoning as to why enrollment numbers in his district have increased, but said he is still worried about enrollment.
“I’m still concerned about the low elementary numbers,” he said.
Eastbrook’s gain of 18 student bodies was a direct reflection of the student gain at the junior high and high school level; the elementary schools lost a total of nine students, Harshman said.
While M-G’s ADM number has dropped by four this year, M-G Superintendent John Trout said the now 40 non-resident students M-G has enrolled has helped keep the enrollment numbers fairly stable. The non-resident number has increased by 22 this year, he said.
Mississinewa’s increase of 25 non-resident students was somewhat of a surprise Superintendent Mike Powell said. He said he originally anticipated for that number, and the total student enrollment number, to decrease. He said he felt this way, especially about total enrollment, because Mississinewa’s enrollment numbers have been increasing for the last six years and he thinks the enrollment bubble will burst sometime.
The increase in non-resident students won’t provide any districts extra funds outside the tuition support each student, whether resident or not, generates from the state.
That number is derived from the number of kindergarten through 12th-grade students enrolled in a district on a particular day, which was Friday this year. That number is then sent to the state to be plugged into a formula. After much calculation, the state determines how much each district will receive for tuition support from them. Tuition support from the state goes to the general fund.
