While the Pella School Board will deal with a spending authority shortfall in the upcoming fiscal year, brighter news may be ahead for the district overall.
Superintendent Greg Ebeling tells KNIA/KRLS News all public schools are funded on a per pupil basis, and a swing up in overall enrollment may be looming to help the district grow.
“When you do have more students, that usually does require more teachers, at some point in time, and you can try to be efficient with how that looks,” he says. “But the good news is with our local businesses hiring and also with kind of the talk of how we can overall increase our housing options in our community–if those things would happen, it would really poise our community and district for growth.”
Ebeling says higher than normal preschool and kindergarten enrollment, as well as aggressive housing initiatives in the city of Pella, has the board preparing for what could be growth of 100 students over the next 10 years as they develop a long-term facilities plan.
Additionally, open enrollment numbers have grown significantly over the last several years.