Waseca superintendent: district enrollment set to stabilize, new mandates a challenge

After a decade of steady declines, Waseca Public Schools is set to see its annual enrollment flatline over the next 10 years, according to a comprehensive analysis produced by district staff in collaboration with Twin Cities-based consulting firm TeamWorks International.

Completed last month, the study provides extensive analysis of the current student body and its projected future cohorts. Over the past decade, Waseca Public Schools has lost about 200 students, or 10% of its student body, forcing substantial cuts due to a loss of per pupil state aid.

Waseca Public Schools has seen the decline in its enrollment even though Superintendent Eric Hudspith said that the District’s “market share” locally remains dominant. In total, roughly 85% of children living in the Waseca School District attend Waseca Public Schools.

Excluding private and homeschool students, Waseca currently gains more than it loses from open enrollment. A map of where those students live exactly was also included with the report, showing a significant number of rural students as well as those living in Waseca’s city limits.

As for now, the baseline estimate expects there to be at least a modest increase in the number of families in the District, and Waseca Public Schools remains strong with those families, attracting more people than it loses through open enrollment.

In terms of building space utilization, Waseca’s Elementary Schools appear to be much more efficient than its Middle/High School. Typically, only about half of potential classroom space is in use at the Middle/High School, compared to over 90% at the Elementary Schools.

Hudspith said that the report’s authors are still waiting to hear back more information from the City of Waseca as to future residential developments that may boost the housing stock and thus attract more families with children to town.

Once that housing data is received and various smaller issues are corrected, Hudspith promised that a full version of the report would be released. He promised it would provide a crucial guide for future decision making, especially in recommending buildings to prioritize investment in.

Also important to consider will be the impact of state decisions and investments while considering investments. While hardly massive and “transformational” like last year’s legislative session, Hudspith offered a recap of some of the work done by the legislature this year.

While this year was not a budget year and very little of a once gaudy surplus remained, state legislators did still find $30 million to pour into implementing the READ Act, a rare bipartisan priority at the capitol which seeks to move reading education closer to science-based practices.

Waseca Public Schools is likely to get about $70,000 for implementation of the bill and about $60,000 in funding to compensate teachers for training to follow the act’s practices. In total, Hudspith said that the cost of implementing the READ Act should come out to around $1 million for Waseca Public Schools.

Hudspith said that Waseca Public Schools has been able to get ahead of the curve in terms of implementing the READ Act with many teachers getting the training they need to follow the best practices identified under the READ Act this summer.

However, the act does provide greater flexibility for those Districts which are struggling to fully implement the act, whether due to costs or other aspects. Hudspith said that is part of a broader desire at the capitol to relax mandates which came to be seen as too burdensome.

“What I have seen this session was a lot of acknowledgement that what we did last year were good ideas which had flawed implementation,” Hudspith said.

Hudspith emphasized that where exactly the legislature will go after this session is highly unclear and dependent on the results of this fall’s legislative elections, and whether the DFL is able to maintain full control of state government or if the state returns to divided government.

With divided government, Hudspith said that there would likely not be new significant mandates, while he worries that renewed DFL majorities might try to push ahead with additional programs and mandates that would not be easy for districts in rural Minnesota to implement.

Hudspith said the biggest thing he hopes legislators regardless of party will embrace is to move away from additional mandates and instead seek to maximize the ability of local districts to serve their communities by providing additional dollars on the general formula.

“We know our community best and we know what our community needs,” Hudspith said. “The opportunity to provide formula dollars on the general formula which school districts have local control on how they spend that money is what best serves rural Minnesota.”