Increases in student enrollment along with reductions in the number of teachers means class sizes at every grade level have increased for this school year, with about one student more for each teacher districtwide, according to enrollment reports.

“You can see we’ve had pretty significant increases (in enrollment),” said Kyle Hayden, assistant superintendent of business and operations for the school district, as he presented the enrollment report to the school board at its meeting Monday evening.

Lawrence schools Superintendent Rick Doll said that having about 10 fewer classes at the elementary level saved the district about $350,000. Considering the reductions in staff, increases in class sizes were managed, Doll said. He said the district’s strategy of not assigning contingency teachers until the very end of the summer — with some teachers not being assigned to classrooms until less than a week before the first day of school — helped minimize impact.

“We were very, very careful of how we allocated staff,” Doll said.

While average elementary class size increased by about one student districtwide, there were a few “hot spots,” such as an average fourth-grade class of 29 students at Deerfield; an average kindergarten class of 25 students at Broken Arrow; and an average fifth-grade class of 27.5 students at Prairie Park, Hayden said.

“Our numbers ended up pretty good; you won’t see any classes of 30 in here,” he said, noting that actual numbers are slightly less because not all students who enroll show up.

In addition to the effects of increased enrollment in the district on class size, the school board also reviewed the impact on the 2015-16 budget.

“Even though there was some enrollment change, we’re going to get the exact same amount of dollars,” said Kathy Johnson, director of finance for the district.

In March, the Kansas Legislature repealed the per-pupil school funding formula that had been in place since 1992 and replaced it with block grants for the next two years, during which time lawmakers will put together a new funding formula. While changes to the funding formula did increase the amount of funding for the virtual school, reductions in other areas still mean the district received less state funding than it would have under the old formula, Johnson said.

“It’s about $450,000 that we would have had more under the old formula, mostly under the (local option budget),” she said.

In other business, the school board selected a delegate and alternate who will attend the 2015 Kansas Association of School Boards’ annual convention in December and cast the district’s vote on legislative issues. Shannon Kimball was selected as delegate and Jill Fincher as her alternate.

The next school board meeting will be Oct. 26 at 7 p.m. Monday in the district offices, 110 McDonald Drive.