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Colaluca addresses open-enrollment, fields questions
By Billy Ludt
AUSTINTOWN
Community members and parents of students in Austintown schools joined the district’s superintendent Thursday evening for a conversation on open enrollment, a topic of much debate in the district.
Eat N’ Park on Mahoning Avenue was the first location of Superintendent Vince Colaluca’s series of public meetings called Coffee & Conversation.
“When you do this job, you have to take personal belief off the table,” Colaluca said. He went on to say he doesn’t personally agree with open enrollment, and believes students should attend school in the district where they reside.
He added: “But we couldn’t not have open enrollment and maintain what the schools offer.”
Austintown township’s tendency to vote down school levies cut possible funding to maintain extracurricular activities and sports, that were, at one time, threatened to be cut. The district makes up that funding by offering open enrollment, each student bringing in about $6,000 in state funding.
Assistant Superintendent Jeremy Batchelor said if open enrollment were capped or rescinded, what the school district could offer would be impacted.
“That’s not a threat,” he said. “It’s just a reality.”
Colaluca said a 5-mill levy, each mill valued at or between $590,000 and $600,000, would be equivalent to the revenue generated by the district through open enrollment students.
According to the Ohio Department of Education, in the 2016-17 school year, 82 percent of school districts in Ohio had open enrollment.
“Twenty years ago, we didn’t consider schools businesses,” Colaluca said. “Now we do.”
Several people in attendance shared issue with the number of open-enrollment students in Austintown schools steadily increasing. The schools have placed a cap on how many students can be enrolled per class, with this year’s student-to-teacher ratio at about 23-1.
The district is considered transient by the state, with about a 200 student loss each year. These students instead attend other regional schools, or move from the district.
Critics’ concern is that the decrease in district students will make way for a larger open-enrollment population, and the possibility of taxpayers leaving the township and lowering property values.
Colleen Villio said she brought her children to Austintown schools because of the quality of Youngstown City Schools.
“As open-enrollment parents who hope our kids make it all the way through K-12, what can we do for the community to changer their perception?” she asked.
The next Coffee & Conversation is planned for November, though no date has not been set yet.