By Ben Rodgers
Editor
SUAMICO – The Howard Suamico school board voted to stay consistent with a district plan to cap certain open enrollment seats at it’s Tuesday, Jan. 29 meeting.
The open enrollment item was presented in the consent agenda, but Mark Smith, assistant superintendent of organizational development, explained some details outside of the meeting.
For the 2019-20 school year the district will have 60 open spaces in 4K and 40 open spaces in the high school. There will not be any open enrollment spaces for the other grade levels.
“Seats are limited because of several factors: number of teachers per grade level/subject, desired class size and projected enrollment,” Smith said. “We have more students K-8 than our desired or optimum class size. This is the second straight year of a strategic decision aligned to our financial realities in the Howard-Suamico School District.”
For 2019-20, the district will have 1,880 projected enrollment students at Bay Port High School, with a capacity of 1,920.
Smith said the move to restrict open enrollment comes on the heels of a commitment made to district stakeholders during the referendum process.
“The recommendation to the board of education is very similar to last year,” he said. “This recommendation is in line with the referendum community task force’s recommendations to curtail open enrollment into the school district.
We have open enrollment available space at the 4K level and the High School Level. K-8 will have zero new spaces available for open enrollment. This allows us to remain true to our commitment to the community to keep lower class sizes.”
Enrollments are open in 4K because of community partnership and 4K not being required for students.
“4K is a community based partnership we have with daycare businesses in the area,” Smith said. “Daycares provide us with the number of staff or sections they can accommodate. We look at predicted resident enrollment and determine open spaces. 4K is not a requirement for all resident students. The number of spaces available this year is a result of predicted resident enrollment, number of teachers and optimum class size.”
However, a student enrolled in 4K for 2019-20 can attend Howard-Suamico schools up through high school graduation as long as they aren’t habitually truant or violate district policy related to behavior, he said.
For special education the district has few openings as well.
Dependent on needs, there are eight spaces for 4K, eight spaces for kindergarten to fourth grade, and six spaces for fifth and sixth grade.
The open enrollment period for Wisconsin runs from Feb. 4 to April 30.