West Geauga Schools open enrollment period begins in January
Officials cite benefits to keeping programs and staff
The open enrollment sign up period will be Jan. 16 to Feb. 2 for students residing outside of the West Geauga Schools district to apply to attend school in the 2018-19 school year.
The open enrollment sign up period will be Jan. 16 to Feb. 2 for students residing outside of the West Geauga Schools district to apply to attend school in the 2018-19 school year. Resident student enrollment figures show there is some wiggle room to add more students in the middle school and high school grades, according to data presented at the Dec. 11 West Geauga Schools Board of Education meeting.
The district currently has 142 open enrollment students and may have room for 152 next year.
“Preference will be given to returning students, but they must re-apply,” said Superintendent Richard Markwardt. “Legally, we can do that, but we cannot use discipline to rule out accepting a student. A student would have to have been suspended for 10 days the previous year.”
West Geauga Schools’ open enrollment policy has helped school administrators balance grade levels and offer a greater variety of courses without adding staff, according to Markwardt.
He said class sizes have been held to low numbers while admitting OE students has enabled the district to retain teachers and programs that would have had to be cut.
According to Markwardt, the average class size in the elementary grades is 19 to 22 students. He pointed out there was a “big influx” of resident students entering first grade this past fall, due to families moving into the district.
“Most teachers would agree that there is a big difference between class sizes of 19-20 students versus 25-27,” Markwardt explained. “Especially now that teachers are being asked to help with interventions.”
School officials estimate there will be room for about 30 additional students in middle school in the coming year and 15 in grade nine.
“This is a very different discussion from a few years ago,” board member Kathy Leavenworth said, alluding to emotional objections voiced from community members who were concerned the board had accepted too many open enrollment students and over-inflated class sizes.
Markwardt pointed out the school administrators are careful to not add open enrollment students past the sophomore year who want to attend West G solely to gain entry into the EXCELL Tech program, which would cost the district upwards of $26,000.
“If they’ve started with us in the earlier grades and want to attend EXCELL Tech, that’s fine, we just want to see a return on our investment,” he said.
In other business discussed during the meeting, it was noted Jim Russo will retire and leave his position as business manager at the end of December.
Stepping into the role will be Sean Whelan, who will serve as the school’s director of technology and operations, blending the business manager role with his current responsibilities in technology.
Whelan has served the district as a teacher and administrator, and recently received his state certification to advance from a supervisory role to administration.
