At this week’s Pella School Board meeting, the district revealed its certified enrollment number for the 2023-24 school year. Superintendent Greg Ebeling says when factoring in open enrollment, part-time students, and other dual enrolled situations, a total of 2,350 students are attending classes in the district, down 39 from last year. He says that’s in part due to large graduating classes at the high school and smaller than normal kindergarten classes — as well as many students who left Pella Schools to attend a private institution through education savings accounts approved last legislative session.

“We did have a number of students who left to use ESAs — we had about 31 students that were with us last year that took the ESAs and went to Pella Christian, and then, of course, we had some people who chose Pella Christian for kindergarten right out of the gate, so theirs was up while ours was down. Our kindergarten enrollment is actually about 139 students, which is the smallest we’ve had since I’ve been here in 13 years. That created a declining enrollment that’s happening on an already very tight budget.”

Ebeling says Pella Schools will benefit from the 307 students who live in the district’s borders and attend Pella Christian, Peoria Christian, or Oskaloosa Christian schools, with approximately $1,200 per pupil in funding, but the drop in enrollment in the public school itself will only allow the general fund to roughly break even. Enrollment directly impacts the amount of money available for staff and administrative salaries — a separate fund from any construction dollars used in current bond issue projects or other district facility needs.

Ebeling says projected enrollment decline in the next few years in the elementary levels, while increased class sizes in the middle school and larger, are only complicating the situation, as the district has already employed early retirement incentives multiple times in the past decade to bridge the budget gap caused, in part, due to lagging state supplemental aid vs. staff costs.

The Pella School Board will begin the formal budget process with a presentation detailing the current budget projection for next school year and how to begin the process of likely reductions that could eclipse $1 million. Hear more about the latest in the Pella Community School District on Thursday’s Let’s Talk Pella.