Austintown school enrollment surpasses Youngstown’s

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Colaluca

By Denise Dick | denise_dick@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

For years, the Youngstown City School District instructed the most students of any Mahoning Valley district, dwarfing those surrounding it with its five-figure enrollment.

Not anymore.

Ohio Department of Education enrollment data for the 2013-14 academic period, the most recent year for which the state has numbers, show Austintown enrollment now reigns.

And, much of the shift is caused by Youngstown students’ attending Austintown schools through open enrollment.

ODE shows 5,350 students enrolled in Austintown schools, compared with 5,111 in Youngstown’s. Warren City Schools are only slightly lower at 5,069 students, and Boardman has 4,335.

At one time, the Youngs-town school district enrolled more than 10,000 students. As recently as 2005-06, 8,093 attended Youngstown schools while Austintown had 4,829.

Austintown Superintendent Vince Colaluca said 2013-14 was the first year his district hit a higher enrollment figure than the city schools. Nearly 13 percent of Austintown students, or 680, are coming to the district from Youngstown via open enrollment.

“Every district in the Valley is losing residential students because of the loss in population,” he said. “When we’re sharing students — maybe it’s unfortunate, but the law allows you to do that now — it helps supplement the kids we’re losing.”

Colaluca said the application that students submit for open-enrollment admission is generic. The district isn’t permitted to ask why a student wants to leave his or her home district, he said.

Most students who come into Austintown schools remain, Colaluca said.

“Eighty to 90 percent move from grade to grade,” he said.

Youngstown schools Superintendent Connie Hathorn isn’t surprised by the change. For the past few years, though, the district has been working to improve and to offer programs that appeal to students.

“We have to show improvement and success in the school district,” he said.

The visual and performing arts and Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics programs at Chaney and the Discovery programs at Kirkmere and Volney are examples of strategies the district employs to retain students and attract new ones.

“I think we’ve stopped the bleeding,” Hathorn said.

Although many students still leave the district, the number of those departing continues to drop, compared with the previous year, he said.

In the 2011-12 school year, the district had 575 fewer students than the previous year. In 2012-13, enrollment fell by 254, and in 2013-14, it dropped by 122 students. This year, the number is 62 students fewer than last year.

There are about 9,500 school-age children living within school district boundaries, and Austintown gets the most of those choosing to attend another school district through open enrollment.

Lowellville comes in second with about 180 students, according to the Youngstown district’s fiscal-year 2013 data. Struthers sees about 150.

Each student brings about $5,700 in per-pupil state funding. That amount increases for special-eduction students or those who meet low-income criteria.

Youngstown schools Treasurer James Reinhard said the district is losing about $35 million this year from students choosing to leave the district.

About 1,330 students, or nearly $7.6 million, is being lost to open-enrollment districts.

But community — or charter — schools make up the bulk of the dollars lost by the district through the loss of students. That amount tops $22 million this year with about 2,600 students.

An additional 941 students, totaling about $5.2 million, attend private schools using vouchers.