By the numbers
The following details the shift in local schools’ ADM (or average daily membership) count:
Anderson
09-10: 8,763
10-11: 7,832.5
Alexandria
09-10: 1,445
10-11: 1,559
Elwood
09-10: 1,745
10-11: 1,585
Shenandoah
09-10: 1,315
10-11: 1,356
Frankton-Lapel
09-10: 2,601
10-11: 2,740
Daleville
09-10: 707.5
10-11: 798
Madison-Grant
09-10: 1,431
10-11: 1,428
South Madison
09-10: 4,032.5
10-11: 4,149.5
ANDERSON — Initial counts indicate that Anderson schools lost 930 students in the past year, while Frankton-Lapel schools saw a jump of 139 students.
Across the county, and across the state, local schools completed an ADM, or average daily membership, count on Friday.
On Monday, administrators got their first look at the initial numbers.
The ADM count determines the school district’s funding and does not represent a total number of students.
Instead, preschool students are not counted in the total, and kindergartners are only counted as half a student.
Paul Garrison, superintendent of the Shenandoah school district, said the counting of kindergartners as half students includes those who attend school for the full day.
On Monday, student services director Nancy Farley said the Anderson Community School Corporation counted 7,832.5 students on Friday.
The ADM does not only focus on those students who showed up for school Friday, but also those who have registered and showed up to the school to attend classes at all.
Last year, ACS counted 8,763 students.
During original 2010-2011 budget projections, ACS counted on losing 600 students.
ACS Business Manager Kevin Brown said an increase in the loss of students will affect the budget projection, and numbers will need to be reworked.
ACS Superintendent Felix Chow said the number of teachers hired in 2010 was based on those original projections. A drop in enrollment will undoubtedly affect staff cuts, he explained.
As he began analyzing enrollment, Chow said the loss of students isn’t necessarily a result of the unpopular school consolidation approved by the previous school board.
“It appears that the preliminary numbers show the majority of the students we lose, they moved out of state. It doesn’t matter what the board did or not do, they moved out,” he said.
Still, the 930 student loss pales in comparison to first day of school numbers, which indicated that the school district had lost 1,374 students.
Elwood took a sizable enrollment hit.
In the past year, the school district has lost 160 students, according to early ADM estimates.
Farley stressed that ADM numbers are not final until two weeks after count day.
During this two week period, schools work out “conflicts” in enrollment, ensuring that two school districts are not claiming the same student, she said.
Each student, Farley explained, is tagged with an STN, or student test number.
This number, which is also used during ISTEP testing, gives each student a unique identification, allowing the state to fund the appropriate school for that particular child.
When a student has registered in two places or failed to notify his or her old school of a transfer, conflicts must be worked out to ensure that only one school is funded for the child’s education.
Farley said that if the two school districts involved in the conflict cannot decided where the student belongs by the deadline, neither school receives funding for that student.
Farley said that just doesn’t happen because school secretaries start tracking down missing students on the first day of school to determine if they’ve left the district. “It gets worked out.”
ADM confusion is not limited to times of consolidation and high transfer rates, Farley explained.
“They could go to our school on a Friday, move over the weekend and go to a new school on a Monday,” she said.
Farley wasn’t sure how many conflicts are being worked out within the Anderson school district, but Garrison said Shenandoah was lucky to have just one conflict, which means the district’s count of 1,356 will likely remain intact over the next two weeks.
Frankton-Lapel’s assistant superintendent Sterling Boles said the increase in students is good news for the district.
“It allows us to keep programming and staff in place and hopefully allow us to make good decisions for our kids educationally. We’re not having to look to cut staff and programs,” Boles said.
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