CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (KCRG) – The superintendent of the Decorah Community School District says there’s no doubt about it: Budget cuts are coming to the district.

“This is worrying because we know that our public funding will decrease. So we just have to do it as a district: We’ve talked about how we provide a great education here in Decorah, and how we want to continue to provide a great education in Decorah, and we plan to do that, but we need to do it with less funding. ” said Decorah Community School District Superintendent Tim Cronin.

The reductions come because the district’s enrollment has fallen by about 50 students, according to the certified registration numbers. Certified enrollment is an annual count of students at a certain time in the fall. The number of certified enrollments is an important factor in the amount of state funding a district will receive.

“This year the per student funding is $7,826, so if you round that up to about $8,000 and you have fifty fewer students, that means your revenue is going to go down – your state funding is going to go down approximately $400,000.” Cronin said.

In a larger district like the Cedar Rapids Community School District (CRCSD), it’s a similar story.

“A total change in the total enrollment served – the number of students served is down 337,” said Karla Hogan, CRCSD Chief Financial Officer. “We lost 2.3% of our registrations. So, for us, that’s a lot.”

CRCSD’s initial budget from March projected a general fund deficit of $4 million for fiscal year 2025. After receiving certified enrollment numbers, the district is looking at millions more in the red, a deficit of $9 .6 million dollars.

As for why public school enrollment is trending down in these districts, Cronin said, “We know that ESAs are not helping our enrollment. »

This is the second year Iowa law has provided for ESAs, vouchers that allow students to use taxpayer dollars to attend a private school.

However, public school officials said the drop in numbers was likely not solely due to private schools.

At a CRCSD school board meeting Monday evening, board President Cindy Garlock said, “Given the effects of ESAs – good ones – and the arrival of charter schools, it becomes even more essential to ensure that the programming in this district is the right programming for students in this community.

School officials have expressed alternative options and dissatisfaction with changes to public schools — such as a new, stricter system state-mandated attendance policy– are all at stake.

They added that every student lost makes the future of public school students more uncertain.

“We’ve been told about the implications of vouchers and ESAs, but now we’re kind of living in these times and it’s not that fun,” said CRCSD school board member Kaitlin Byers.

Copyright 2024 KCRG. All rights reserved.