Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp. has approximately 11,309 students as of Sept. 18, up 34 from last year’s fall count.
Superintendent Jim Roberts said that one of the reasons for the increase was students from other districts being drawn to BCSC by the school, corporation’s remote options.
Flat Rock-Hawcreek has a final count of 981 students as of Oct. 1, which is up almost 40 from last year. Superintendent Shawn Price called it the school’s "biggest year of growth in the last five years," for a school corporation that has shown continuing enrollment increases.
These numbers come from Average Daily Membership counts from both school corporations. The state uses ADM to allot tuition funding support to schools. According to BCSC Assistant Superintendent of Finance Chad Phillips, the state’s per-pupil allocation amount is $5,703 for the 2020-21 fiscal year.
Typically, the state funds in-person students 100% and provides 85% of the per-pupil amount for virtual students. However, this year, the Indiana State Board of Education has chosen to give 100% funding for students who were in-person learners in February and are now enrolled in virtual learning due to COVID-19. Students who were virtual learners in both February and fall of 2020 are still counted as virtual from a funding perspective.
Phillips said that out of BCSC’s preliminary ADM count of 11,309, only 40 are counted as virtual "from a funding perspective." He added that while BCSC’s ADM count is preliminary, he does not expect the final number to be drastically different.
“That process, as you know, takes about three weeks to resolve conflicts with other school corporations when we both claim the same student ID number, but at this point and time, we don’t expect it to move a great deal," he said.
Phillips said that, as the school corporation expected, there was a large decline in kindergarten enrollment. He said this is due to many families choosing to wait a year before either enrolling their kids in kindergarten or skipping straight to first grade.
“Only three times in the last 20 years have we seen a decline of 2 percent or more in our kindergarten classes," he said. "The first time is the Class of 2020, which is the children that were born after 9/11. The second time, our current fourth graders, who were the children that would’ve been born following the great recession. And now this one, with what we’re calling the COVID recession.”
“Had we had a normal enrollment in kindergarten this year, we would be somewhere up in the neighborhood of plus 75 students this year, which is certainly bucking the trend of what many of my colleagues are experiencing across the state," he said.
[sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”BCSC September enrollment” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]
2020 (preliminary) – 11,309
2019 – 11,275
2018 – 11,322
2017 – 11,309
2016 – 11,251
2015 – 11,251
*Rounded to the nearest whole number
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Price said that since Flat Rock-Hawcreek didn’t have a virtual program last year, all of its students are funded 100%.
2020-21 (final): 981
2019-20: 942
2018-19: 903
2017-18: 882
2016-17: 863
2015-16: 844
2014-15: 868
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