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Downward trend in enrollment will reduce state funding to local schools

The Indiana Department of Education released the 2009 Annual Performance Reports last week, and the data shows that the Huntington County schools are getting fewer students.

With fewer children, the Huntington County Community School Corporation gets less state dollars, says Superintendent Tracey Shafer.

According to the report, the corporation has 5,949 students enrolled for the 2009-10 school year. Enrollment has been steadily declining since 2006-07, the first year for which data is included in the report.
In 2006-07 Huntington County schools had 6,232 students. The following school year saw 6,121 students, with 2008-09 enrollment at 6,074.

"When you have fewer children, you get less funding," Shafer says, explaining that corporations get paid per student, and get more money for students that are in such categories as vocational or are in the free and reduced lunch program.

Another issue the corporation will run into from declining enrollment is adjusting staffing levels at some schools, Shafer says. Because there appears to be a decline of one or two kids in a class, he says that makes it more difficult to even out.

"It's not that nice and neat when you spread (the count) over the corporation," he explains.

Shafer says one of the first things he noticed while thumbing through the data is the HCCSC comparison between the Core 40 Academic Honors Diploma state numbers and the SAT scores. He explains that the data shows that the corporation's SAT scores are up, but the honors diploma number trails the state average. This tells the corporation that students who are able to take advance classes aren't doing so, he says.

"We have a lot of kids with a lot of potential," he says, adding that these upper-level courses help both the students and the corporation.

All in all, 2009 has appeared to be a successful academic year.

"(By) most numbers, we are doing very well. We're looking for places of improvement," Shafer says.

The 2009 report is available to the public at www.doe.in.gov/htmls/performance.html. The corporation code is 3625.