By Matthew Stolle
Post-Bulletin, Rochester MN
In three southeastern Minnesota school districts, the student enrollment shakeout of the last decade has had dramatically different effects: Kingsland, Houston and Byron school districts.
Kingsland saw a precipitous 32 percent decline in student numbers. Houston's enrollment exploded, due almost entirely to an online venture called the Minnesota Virtual Academy. And Byron saw impressive growth of nearly 20 percent, in part because of open enrollment and its proximity to Rochester.
Kingsland
Like a lot of districts, Kingsland school board members and administrators weren't taken by surprise by the student enrollment crunch that washed over southeastern Minnesota. They had seen the numbers and braced for the changes that those numbers foretold.
"Anybody that says that Kingsland was not going to be in a declining environment eight years ago couldn't have been listening to a thing that the board or the administration had been telling them," said Kingsland school board chairman Mitch Lentz.
Spring Valley, home to the district's high school and elementary school, hasn't changed much over the last decade. The city's population has hovered consistently around 2,500. But as families began having fewer babies, those collective decisions began to be felt in Kingsland, as in other districts.
"If you don't have the children, you don't have the revenue to offer what you had last year. You have to make the cuts accordingly," Lentz said.
After going through an extended period of restructuring that involved cutting staff and programs, the district has emerged from the worst of the demographic storm, Lentz said. Enrollment is projected to stabilize following the graduation of next year's senior class.
Officials also say that the district is well-positioned for the future. An $11.8 million building program that included a "facelift" for the middle school in Wykoff and a new elementary school addition in Spring Valley was completed last year. And the board is considering a first-of-its-kind proposal in which one day a week would be designated a "digital day" for students.
"We've got a highly motivated staff, doing interesting things. Kingsland, I think, has taken the initiative to position ourselves for tomorrow," Lentz said.
Houston
Of all the districts of southeastern Minnesota, none has run more against the grain than the Houston school district. In the last 10 years, no district has grown faster in percentage terms than Houston, thanks largely to its online school.
Kim Ross, district superintendent, said Houston has had double-digit growth every year for the last eight years except one and this year was the biggest growth year of all: A 35 percent increase in students over last year. It started this year with a fall enrollment of 2,037 students, more than quadrupling the 423 students it had in 2000.
"The economy is challenging, but the growth factor really takes the edge off. We haven't had to cut back on services or programs. We've been able to add. It's really different than it might have been," Ross said.
The birth of the online venture was greeted with a fair amount of skepticism and opposition from some lawmakers and the state's teachers union. But it has now become a part of the educational landscape, Ross said.
Ross said that even if other districts aren't looking to start their own online schools, they are looking at how they can do things differently. The ability to personalize a student's educational experience will transform schools, he said.
Ross added that the online school has imparted a dynamism to its traditional classroom activities. Where once Houston suffered from a net loss of students from open enrollment, it now has more students coming into the district than leaving it. And last year there were 115 classes that the district's local students took from its online school.
"It just opens up dramatically the options for our kids here locally. It's not only attracting kids statewide, but it's making a world of difference for our kids here," Ross said.
Byron
Outside of Houston, few districts have grow as much as Byron, which saw enrollment expand by 18 percent over the last decade, from 1,450 in 2000 to a projected 1,715 this year, according to figures provided by the state Department of Education.
Byron officials point to three factors for the growth: Their organic growth as a community; their ability to offer advanced placement classes and other college-level opportunities to high school students; and their proximity to Rochester, from which 163 students left their home district to attend Byron schools last year, according to a Rochester document.
But as the Byron district prepares for an $800,000 override levy referendum on Nov. 3, proponents of the effort are facing skepticism from some quarters.
Some residents ask why they should pay higher property taxes to benefit students who don't live in their district and whose parents pay property taxes in some other district.
This year, there were 288 students who enrolled in Byron through open enrollment, compared to 62 students who left the district. Open-enrolled students make about 13 percent of Byron's student body.
School officials say the benefits of open enrollment outweigh the negatives.
Because of the extra revenue these students bring in -- $6,661 per year for each open-enrolled student in grades seven through 12 -- the district has the economy of scale to offer courses that otherwise would be difficult, if not impossible to offer, such as AP courses, including Southwest State College classes, and Chinese language courses.
And where there is a space crunch, Byron has been able close down the inflow of students, officials say. The district no longer permits students from outside the district to enroll in early childhood special education, kindergarten, second grade or fourth grade.
"I like (open enrollment), because we optimize it," said Byron School Board chairwoman Diane Lund. "We leverage it. We take what we find is the positives of it. We limit it where it would impact us from an infrastructure perspective."
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