Greene County and Paton-Churdan have released their certified enrollments for the current school year. The certified enrollment is a computation based not on how many students are in attendance, but on how many students are residents of a district. Students who open enroll out to another district are counted, but students who live in another district and open enroll in are not part of the certified enrollment.
The Greene County district reports a certified enrollment of 1,281.37 in grades K-12. (A fraction results from “weighting” of students who are home schooled students but dually enrolled in the public school.) That figure is down 19.13 students from the total of Jefferson-Scranton and East Greene enrollment last year.
“Obviously, this isn’t the direction we wanted to go,” superintendent Tim Christensen said at the Greene County school board meeting Wednesday. “The positive hope is the development going on in Greene County with the casino and the new Hy-Vee. We’ll continue to improve our schools, get higher test scores, and have people move in.”
According to business manager Brenda Muir, there are 113 students who live in the district but attend elsewhere. They are included in the certified enrollment. There are 59 students who live elsewhere but attend school in Greene County. Actual attendance is 1,230 students.
Muir added that students have moved into the district since the Oct. 1 count day, but they will not be part of the state funding computation.
It is the certified enrollment the state uses to figure its funding to each district. The decrease in certified enrollment will reduce state funding to Greene County schools by about $120,000.
Paton-Churdan has an increase in certified enrollment of 15 students, from 136 last year to 151 this year. State funding should increase by about $90,000. P-C principal Annie Smith reports actual attendance as 200 students.
