T-R PHOTO BY LANA BRADSTREAM — Marshalltown Community School District Director of Business Operations Randy Denham tells the school board, including President Sean Heitmann, about the increase in certified enrollment of students. This is great news for the looming budget season, Denham said.

“Pleasantly surprised” was the term used to describe feelings of this year’s Marshalltown Community School District (MCSD) certified student enrollment.

During the regular school board Monday meeting, Director of Business Operations Randy Denham said the number was finalized last week after the official Oct. 1 count. He said the certified enrollment of 5,383 includes special education, dual enrollments and more. The number increased by 31 students from 5,352 last year.

“That determines how the budget is funded for the upcoming year,” he said.

Denham also brought up the served enrollment, “the butts in seats” of 4,965, an increase of 42 students from last year’s count of 4,923.

“Both our certified and our served enrollment increased pretty significantly this year,” he said. “We were actually projecting a decrease in enrollment if you remember from our budget forecasting last spring. We were projecting an 11 or 12 student drop. . . . Great news as we’re getting ready to head into budget season.”

The number of students open enrolling out to other school districts also decreased from 547 to 543. The number of students open enrolling into Marshalltown increased from 127 to 131.

Denham said the two main components for the budget are the certified enrollment plus the State Supplemental Aid (SSA).

“So, we have the first big piece of that puzzle,” he said. “The second big piece will come hopefully sometime at the end of January which is when the governor will make her budget recommendations.”

Denham said the SSA “rumbling” for next year is two percent, and with that estimation, the new money would be more than $1 million. He added that “pleasantly surprised” is the best way to summarize the certified enrollment count for the MCSD.

Board member Zach Wahl said it looks like the open enrollment in has doubled in the last five years, from 67 students in 2020, meaning more students outside the district are coming in. He asked what that was accredited to.

Superintendent Theron Schutte said he believes parents are making better educated decisions regarding the best options for their children, rather than operating on perceptions or mistruths about attending Marshalltown schools. Since his arrival in 2016, he said there was a concern on the number of students open enrolling out. While there are still many youth doing so, there has been growth with the number of open enroll in.

“It’s an amazing trajectory,” Schutte said.

Board member Leah Stanley said it is positive to see that served enrollment number is the highest it has been in 10 years.

If not for the natural disasters in the last few years, Schutte wondered what the current enrollment number would be.

Wahl said with other public school districts in Iowa talking about decreased enrollment, it is great to see the MCSD’s increase.

“People want to be in our district,” he said.

In other business, the board:

• Established an enterprise fund for a student-run coffee shop at the Orpheum.

——

Contact Lana Bradstream at 641-753-6611 ext. 210 or lbradstream@timesrepublican.com.