Public school enrollment dips across Clinton County

Feb. 13—CLINTON — Five of the six public school districts in Clinton County saw their certified enrollment counts decrease this year, while 173 students used the state's new education savings accounts to attend non-public schools.

Across Clinton County, public school certified enrollment is cumulatively down 114.5 pupils compared to last year's count. Only Central DeWitt experienced an increase, and that was 19.7.

The certified enrollment count taken on or near the first day of October every year is used to determine funding for public schools and differs slightly from the actual headcount of students enrolled. Statewide, public school district certified enrollment was 483,699, down 2,777 students, or 0.57%, from last year. Certified enrollment at Iowa accredited nonpublic schools was 36,195, up 2,503, or 7.4%, from last year.

Statewide, 16,757 students used education savings accounts at an accredited non-public school as of the Oct. 1 certified enrollment date, according to a Department of Education news release. Of those, 33.7% did not previously attend a non-public school and 12.7% previously attended a public school. Close to 21% of the student ESA participants were students entering kindergarten.

Of the 173 students who used ESAs, most reside within the Clinton Community School District's boundaries, 103. The next highest usage was within the Central Dewitt district at 61.

Clinton County has two non-public schools. St. Joseph School in Dewitt and Prince of Peace Catholic School in Clinton. St. Joseph has a certified enrollment of 149 in preschool through grade 8, which is down three from last year, according to newly released Department of Education statistics posted online.

Prince of Peace has an enrollment of 211 in pre-kindergarten through grade 12, which is up 17 from last year, according to Prince of Peace Principal Joe Brown. Of those, 130 used ESAs this year.

"The main thing the additional revenue did for our school was that we were able to create a salary schedule that increased salaries for our teachers," Brown said. "We were also able to purchase a used 65-passenger bus that will be used for our athletic teams and field trips."

According to a breakdown he provided, 30 of the 40 students who transferred in from public schools this year were from the Clinton district. Students also came from Camanche (5), Northeast (1) and other (4).

Eight Prince of Peace students transferred to Clinton, four to Camanche, one to Dewitt and 10 went elsewhere.

Prince of Peace and St. Joseph School are the only non-public schools in Clinton County. However, in the next year, a second non-public school, Diamond Academy, expects to launch and is advertising that an ESA will cover a student's full tuition.

In the public school districts, Clinton Community Schools saw its certified enrollment fall by 45.8, from 3,604.2 to 3,558.4.

"The financial impact of the 45.8 students is about $347,988," said Clinton Schools Superintendent Gary DeLacy. "The 45.8 students loss is a combination of population loss in the school district or ESAs."

A total of 103 students used ESA, according to the Department of Education.

Open enrollment has been a net loss for the Clinton District. The number of students coming into the district rose from 60 to 68. Outgoing rose from 421 to 463. Five years ago, in 2019, that figure was 376. It's an issue the district is working on beyond all the improvements being made to facilities.

"The district will continue to work on telling its story of offering expanding opportunities such as Synergy, AP and concurrent classes for college credit, a wide array of career and technical education offerings and extracurricular activities," DeLacy said when asked about efforts to reduce the trend.

"The school district has invested in social emotional support for students with the Capturing Kids Hearts curriculum, six full-time mental health therapists from Life Connections, three district social workers, and a team of guidance counselors. The school district also is a leader in school safety with three full-time School Resource Officers and proactive screening procedures at Clinton High School."

Northeast Community Schools took in the most Clinton open enrollment students with 236 this year, according to figures DeLacy provided in Oct. Camanche has 163 with the rest spread over CAM (online), DeWitt, Easton Valley, Clayton Ridge (online) and North Scott.

Although according to the state figures Northeast's certified enrollment this year fell 20.4, its open enrollment climbed from 353 to 372.3. Outgoing fell from 53 to 48. No students were reported using ESAs.

"The Northeast Community School District has greatly benefited from open enrollment through the years," said Northeast Superintendent Neil Gray. "It has made us a better learning community academically, socio-emotionally, extracurricularly, and financially. With more than 40% of our enrollment attributed to non-resident students for more than 10 consecutive years now, Northeast is a much more effective and efficient school district of 900 students than it would be of 500.

"It's hard to put into words why Clinton students are drawn to Northeast. I'm obviously biased because two of my own children open enrolled to Northeast before I became superintendent, but I believe there's simply something about the culture of the Northeast Learning Community that enables all students to be successful learners and leaders. It could be smaller class sizes. It could be the strength of positive personal connections with others. It could be the built-in and expanding system of academic, social-emotional and behavior supports for students. It could be the professional learning and development of the Northeast staff. It could be the strength of the community that supports student learning and student activities. It's likely a combination of all of these things.

"I do know that when students walk in the doors of the elementary or middle-high school, they become our students, Northeast students, not open-enrolled students from district X, Y or Z. That's how they are treated by staff and that's how students treat each other. You cannot tell them apart. There's a sense of pride and purpose in that that's hard to describe, but easy to feel at Northeast."

BY THE NUMBERS IN CLINTON COUNTY

Enrollment data in the rest of the county's school districts show:

—Calamus-Wheatland Comm School District's certified enrollment dropped by 19 students from 381.3 to 362.3. It's open enrollment in rose by 10 to 69.1. Enrollment out fell from 35 to 27. No students were reported using an ESA.

—Camanche Comm School District's certified enrollment is down 32 from 854.3 to 822.3. Open enrollment in climbed from 176 to 189. Out rose from 86 to 97.3. Nine students used ESAs.

—Central DeWitt School District's certified enrollment rose 19.7 from 1,452.9 to 1,472.6. Open enrollment in dropped from 141 to 129. Out rose from 70 to 75.3 out A total of 61 used ESAs.

—Dellwood Community School District's certified enrollment fell 17 from 200 to 183. Open enrollment in remained at 49.6, out fell from 43 to 36. No students used ESAs.

NEARBY PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICTS

—Easton Valley Comm School District's certified enrollment rose from 549.6 to 554.3. Open enrollment in dipped from 25 to 24 as did out from 113 to 112.3. A total 24 used ESAs.

—Maquoketa Comm School District's open enrollment rose from 1,200 to 1,234.9 with open enrollment in falling from 75.6 to 65.6 and out increasing from 128.9 to 134.8. The number of students using ESAs is 55.

—Maquoketa Valley Comm School District's certified enrollment rose from 663.1 to 674.3. Open enrollment in rose from 74 to 84 while out climbed from 65.8 to 82.4. Students using ESAs: 27.

—Midland Comm School District certified enrollment fell from 501.8 to 489.6 with open enrollment in falling from 28 to 25 and outgoing rose from 65.8 to 95.6. Five students used ESAs.