The St. Paul Public Schools enrollment woes can be summed up in one figure -- $10 million.
That's how much the district will have to cut from its planned spending in 2008-09, much of it because St. Paul continues losing students. In education, students equal money. The fewer students in a district, the less funding it receives and the more precarious jobs become.
At a time when the most consistent funding source available to school districts is the number of students they enroll, St. Paul is expected to have 1,500 fewer students next school year than were projected for this year, Lois Rockney, the district's chief business officer told school board members Tuesday. That loss of students makes up $7 million of the expected $10 million deficit the St. Paul schools face.
And it pounds home the point that St. Paul must do more to stem the bleeding.
"We have to retain the students that we have. We have to encourage new students to the district. And we have to do whatever we can to make that happen," Rockney said in an interview Wednesday. "We have to make ourselves attractive to kids and families."
The fact is, competition is becoming even more acute because the overall number of school-age children in St. Paul is declining, said Stephen Schellenberg, who tracks demographics for the school district. In fact, the number of school-age children across the state is falling, as children from a mini baby boom of the late 1980s and early 1990s move out of high school.
While the overall pupil pie is getting smaller, charter schools' slice of that pie in St. Paul is growing. Charter schools are public schools that are independently run and receive their funding directly from the state. The most recent numbers show that about 5,000 St. Paul schoolchildren attend charter schools in the city.
Unless St. Paul can begin wooing back those children and families, the funding woes and the potential loss of teaching jobs will continue.
St. Paul Superintendent Meria Carstarphen said she recognizes the need for St. Paul to boost its enrollment.
Attracting families is a primary goal in plans to next fall expand hugely popular programs at Linwood A-Plus Elementary and Farnsworth Aerospace Magnet Elementary into K-8, dual-campus programs with less-popular neighbors Monroe Community School and Cleveland Junior High.
In addition, the district is working with the Highland Park community to come up with a program to make Homecroft Elementary more popular. A high percentage of Highland families choose private schools and charter schools.
Phalen Lake Elementary, a neighborhood school that has lost enrollment to charter schools that focus on Hmong language and culture, will become a Hmong language and culture magnet school this fall, offering free busing to East Side families.
And, last week, Principal Hamilton Bell and staff members at North End Elementary walked through their Rice Street neighborhood, knocking on doors to tell families about changes there, including putting new gender-based academies into the school. Again, the idea is to attract families that are currently making other choices.
"You can approach these things one of two ways: You can hunker down and say, 'We have declining enrollment.' Or you can be aggressive in seeking new enrollment," said Nancy Stachel, executive director of elementary education for the St. Paul schools.
Stachel has been one of the busy foot soldiers in working to duplicate the district's most popular programs.
Mary Cathryn Ricker, president of the St. Paul Federation of Teachers, said teachers are willing to join the fight.
"We know what we're giving kids. When we say, 'Come back to the St. Paul schools,' we're actually saying 'Come back to our classroom,'" Ricker said.
"Teachers are not used to tooting our own horns," she said "But we're just going to have to get more comfortable in talking about our abilities and what we offer kids."
There is hope. Schellenberg told school board members Tuesday that kindergarten enrollment is actually higher this year than last.
And the district has been working closely with other agencies to increase early childhood programs for 4-year-olds -- in part as a way to attract families to the schools.
Said Ricker: "We will find and reach parents wherever we can. We have to look at it from every vantage point. It's not going to be just one thing that brings kids back. But every one thing we do is a start."
James Walsh • 651-298-1541
