Oak Park needs out-of-district kids
By Sophia Fischer sfischer@theacorn.com

In coming years, outofdistrict permit students will be critical to the Oak Park Unified School District, according to information presented to the school board at its last meeting.

The report listed enrollment trends and projections for 200716, with and without inter-district permit students for each of the five district schools and for the entire district. The figures were compiled by Martin Klauss, Oak Park assistant superintendent for business services, and Michael Regele, the president of DecisionInsite, an Irvine-based firm that provides student and community demographics and forecasting.

DecisionInsite is in its last year of a three-year contract with the district, at $7,000 per year, according to Klauss.

The district currently has around 3,700 students, including about 600 on outofdistrict permits. According to the report, by 2016 the district's total enrollment will drop to about 2,600, including students on inter-district permits. Without out-of-district students the total would sink to about 2,000.

Enrollment changes affect staff size as well as district revenue. Even with the permit students, total enrollment is expected to decline by 642 between the present and the 2011-12 school year. That translates into lost revenues of about $1.1 million and a cut in teachers from the current 183 to 152.

Without permit students those figures change to an enrollment decrease of 1,124, a loss of $4.8 million in revenue and a reduction of 54 teachers.

The figures do not take some factors into consideration, such as the possibility older residents will move out of Oak Park and families with school-aged children will move in, according to Regele. The community is built-out and the figures are based on current residents, he added.

"It could happen, but there's no way to know for sure if it will," Regele said. "We can only base our figures on what we know."

Inter-district permit students now account for about 15 percent of Oak Park's enrollment, according to district Superintendent Tony Knight. The percentage is not expected to increase by more than 5 percent. Other districts are working hard to retain students through new programs and to attract their own out-of-district students.

"It isn't a total solution, but it is very important that we continue to accept students on inter-district permits," Knight said. "Even though we have declining enrollment, we have an increase in inter-district students applying."

Declining enrollment is not a problem unique to Oak Park, according to board member Mary Rees. More than 50 percent of all California school districts are experiencing a decrease in student numbers, Klauss added. Administrators and boards throughout the state are trying to come up with solutions for dealing with the problem, including the possibility of closing schools.

The report will be posted on the Oak Park schools' website at www.opusd.k12.ca.us.