Charles City district enrollment increases for third straight year

By James Grob, jgrob@charlescitypress.com

For the third consecutive year, enrollment numbers in the Charles City School District have increased, after four previous years of substantial drops.

“I am proud to announce that for the third year in a row we are increasing enrollment,” Superintendent Mike Fisher told the school board at Monday’s meeting. “We have been aggressive about making Charles City a destination school district.”

Fisher said that after all the calculations, certified enrollment is up by more than 12 students. The numbers are preliminary and won’t be official until the district submits them to the state on Oct. 15, but Fisher said he was confident with the calculations.

Certified enrollment for the 2020-2021 school year is 1560.92, an increase of 12.04 from last year’s 1548.88. The seat count, or number of students the district is serving, went up by 17 students, from 1515 to 1532.

Certified enrollment is an annual report of enrolled resident students used for the Iowa School Finance Formula calculation.

School districts across the state are required to tabulate their respective enrollment numbers as of Oct. 1 and certify these totals with the Iowa Department of Education prior to Oct. 15. Fisher told the board he was very pleased with the increase.

“We want to make Charles City a place to live, not just the school district, but the community,” Fisher said. “We want to make our community a place to live, raise your kids and embrace our values. We continue to see people move in.”

Two years ago, the certified enrollment numbers increased by nearly 40 students, after an average decline of approximately 11 students per year over a 10-year stretch. Enrollment numbers dropped by nearly 40 students in 2009-10 and by more than 47 students in 2014-15.

“This goes against the grain of what we’re seeing in rural Iowa,” Fisher said. “It’s challenging to get numbers to grow like this.”

Fisher said it was especially heartening to see that enrollment has increased in spite of the nationwide COVID-19 circumstances and some unfortunate circumstances in the community.

“We’ve done this despite some very challenging things,” Fisher said. “For example, we lost a major employer a year ago, and we still grew.”

The increased enrollment numbers are a positive for the district because they directly impact the amount of money the district receives from the state government.

“This helps our bottom line financially, too, for our budget,” Fisher said. “It makes it easier for us to remain financially healthy.”

Iowa schools are funded on a per-pupil basis, and the enrollment totals submitted will determine the general fund and sales tax funding the district will receive. The more students in a district, the more money a district gets. The district also gets supplemental weighting for some of the courses that are taught, which is why there are fractions of students among the certified totals.

Additional state funding will largely depend upon how the state Legislature adjusts supplemental aid. Last year, the number was around $7,000 per pupil, for a total of nearly $60,000 additional funds for the enrollment increase. Two years ago, with an increase of 39 students, Charles City saw a total increase in state funding of over a quarter-million dollars.

Charles City School District Certified Enrollment
(K-12), 2008-2021:
2008-09: 1,594
2009-10: 1,554 (-40)
2010-11: 1,546 (-8)
2011-12: 1,549 (+3)
2012-13: 1,580 (+31)
2013-14: 1589 (+9)
2014-15: 1,542 (-47)
2015-16: 1,531 (-11)
2016-17: 1,513 (-18)
2017-18: 1,502 (-11)
2018-19: 1,541 (+39)
2019-20: 1,549 (+8)
2020-21: 1,561 (+12)