BY BROOKE SJOBERG
Driving decisions
What it means
Smaller class sizes: Some parents prefer students have more one-on-one attention.
Demographics, also known as Zonda Education— said that in compiling projections, he has observed a sharp increase in homeschooling, largely due to the convenience of educating from any location. Some parents have multiple children in their family, with each attending a different school to ensure their individual needs are met. Michelle Evans, another parent in RRISD, said she has three children, with one child attending a RRISD school, a second attending the Texas School for the Deaf, and a third homeschooling. Evans said she later plans to have her homes- chooled child re-enter RRISD to be involved with athletic opportunities available in the district. are when it comes to trying to go out there and recruit parents and bring them to their campuses,” Azaiez said. While having more students attend the RRISD campuses they are zoned for could bring additional money to the district, he said it would not be a solution to cost pressures such as recapture, a mechanism requiring some Texas schools to pay a portion of their property tax revenue back to the state. The best case scenario, in which all of the children zoned for RRISD were to attend 100% of the time, he said the district would only be able to retain about $30 million. This would still have the district paying over $80 million in recapture, based on current school year projections.
Families are enrolling their children in charter and private schools for a variety of reasons. Sarah Gardner, director of community engage- ment for Meridian World School, said the charter school offers a smaller environment for students to enjoy many of the same opportunities they would have at a traditional public school. Michelle Paul, Crosslife Christian Academy’s admissions director, and Daniel Cattau, Concordia High School’s head of school, both pointed to smaller class sizes and relationships between teachers and students as a primary benefit of private schooling. Bob Templeton—a demographer with Templeton
Special programming: Some parents chose schools with career development programs.
Religious affiliation: Some parents wanted to keep a religious aspect to education.
“What we've tried to do all along is meet the needs of each kid individually, and make sure that our family values are represented, or at least aren't adversarial to the programs that they're in.”
MICHELLE EVANS, RRISD PARENT
Going forward
Financial impact
On a year-to-year basis, enrollment can impact many decisions made by school leaders, Azaiez said. Recent stagnation of enrollment and increased costs of operations have led the district to cut entire positions from its budget. However, the district has not laid off any employees to date as a result of enrollment changes. Instead, the district has reallocated funds from unfilled positions to pay for existing jobs. In recent years, RRISD has hired recruiters to bring back students who have left for local charter schools, a move Azaiez said the district does not currently have plans to make again. “I think what we fail to do as a school district is we’re not aggressive like charter schools
These are rough estimates of basic allotment funding school districts would have received from the state if all students attended 100% of the time in 2022-23.
Basic allotment funding**
District
Net transfers*
Round Rock ISD 5,201
$32,038,160
Pflugerville ISD 5,374
$29,777,440
Hutto ISD
735
$4,527,600
Georgetown ISD 1,415
$8,716,400
*NET TRANSFERS= STUDENTS TRANSFERRING OUT - STUDENTS TRANSFERRING IN **THESE AMOUNTS ARE SOLELY BASED ON THE BASIC ALLOTMENT PER STUDENT IN STATE FUNDING, WHICH HAS REMAINED $6,160 PER STUDENT SINCE 2019.
SOURCE: GEORGETOWN ISD, HUTTO ISD, PFLUGERVILLE ISD, ROUND ROCK ISD, TEXAS EDUCATION AGENCY/COMMUNITY IMPACT
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