School board reviews early enrollment numbers

PALMER — With school well into its third week throughout the Valley and the Mat-Su Borough School District dealing with deficit spending, district superintendent Monica Goyette reviewed early enrollment figures at Wednesday evening’s school board meeting.

As part of reviewing the adopted 2017-2018 district budget, Goyette began by stating she encouraged everyone to obtain a copy of the document, and make it part of their winter reading material. She noted the district has received the Association of School Business Officials International—Meritorious Budget Award. She said looking Outside, there were only five districts in California, five in Florida, one in Washington and none in New York.

“It gives you an idea of how rigorous (the process is to earn the award).”

“I have read this in huge detail…it tells the story of the school district. It is an amazing document,” said Goyette.

Going to the numbers, the district had projected current school year enrollment numbers to come in at 19,100, or an increase of 281 students over fiscal year 2017. As of Wednesday, enrollment numbers were at 98.73 percent of that projection or 18,857 students.

“We were trending higher numbers (based on online enrollment),” Goyette said. She said on the 10th day of school, administrators are told to drop students who were marked absent during that time frame which eliminates no-shows or students enrolled in one school and transferring to another. “That cleanup is going on right now.”

She said over the last decade the district has been at, or very close to projection. Final count she said, will occur Oct. 1.

“There is some concern that we might not meet projection….so we will see how things go. We are very cautious at looking at these numbers and we will if we need to adjust our budgets based on a declining projection,” said Goyette. “But we’re going to wait until the October count is over.”

Breaking down the numbers by type--K-12, elementary, high school and rural school counts currently sit at slightly below projections. Middle school and charter school numbers are up slightly over the 2016-2017 school year. Goyette expects Mat-Su Central School numbers, a K-12 institution for homeschoolers, to continue growing.

Regarding the reduction in rural school numbers, the superintendent said the district will continue watching those. Since it cost more to educate rural school students, Goyette said it could have a bigger financial impact on the district.

Contact reporter Chris Ford at 352-2270 or chris.ford@frontiersman.com