photo by: Journal-World

The Lawrence school district offices, 110 McDonald Drive.

The Lawrence school board will soon hear how the district’s recent enrollment changes will affect its budget, which may include an increase in state funding.

Kathy Johnson, the district’s finance director, is scheduled to provide an enrollment and budget report to the board during its meeting on Monday.

According to a report included in the board’s meeting agenda, the district’s 2021-22 enrollment provides a slight increase to the district’s full-time equivalent enrollment, which dictates the general amount of state funding the district receives through the state’s K-12 education funding formula.

The report shows the district’s FTE coming in at 10,027.4 students for the current school year. That is an increase of about 54 FTE students, or a 0.5% increase, from the district’s audited enrollment report from the 2020-21 school year. The increase should provide the district with a slight increase in new funding next summer when the board crafts the 2022-23 school year budget.

However, the 2021-22 school year FTE is still much lower than the school district’s enrollment prior to the pandemic. During the 2019-2020 school year, the district reported an FTE of 10,624.9, a difference of about 597.5 FTE students, or a 5.6% decrease.

As the Journal-World previously reported, the district saw an overall decrease in enrollment, but a slight increase in the number of students who are learning in brick-and-mortar schools.

The district announced the unofficial count for the 2021-22 school year showed a decrease of 247 students, or about 2.2%. The decrease to the overall K-12 enrollment all came from the district’s virtual school, which dropped by 410 students. Meanwhile, the number of students enrolled in the district’s school buildings rose by 163.

Among the in-person learners, the district’s largest enrollment increase came at the middle school level, which grew by 81 students. The elementary level increased by 73 students, and the high schools grew by nine students.

While the increase in in-person enrollment is good for the district, it was only a little more than 25% of the decline of in-person learners the year prior. That year, the number of in-person learners fell by 589. The district had seen a huge drop in enrollment during the 2020-21 school year because of the coronavirus pandemic and had hoped to see at least 50% of those students return.

In other business, the board will also hear a report from Data and Technology Director Zach Conrad about how the district is using data to make “data-informed” decisions. As of Friday, information about the report was not included in the meeting agenda.

The school board will meet at 6 p.m. Monday in the boardroom at the district offices, 110 McDonald Drive. The meeting is open to the public, but the district may limit attendance because of the pandemic.

Those who attend will be required to wear masks. The district also encourages the public to watch the meeting on Midco channel 26 or online at youtube.com/USD497.

Those who want to speak during public comment, either in person or online, must send an email to PublicComment@usd497.org before the meeting begins at 6 p.m. Additionally, anyone who wants to share comments with board members via email may send them to schoolboard@usd497.org.