Oak Creek-Franklin board approves 31 additional sixth-grade open-enrollment seats for 2025-26

The Oak Creek-Franklin Joint School District board voted June 23 to add 31 regular-education sixth-grade open-enrollment seats for the 2025-26 school year, raising the district cap to 37 seats.

Administrators told the board the district currently projects 454 sixth-graders for next year, below an earlier planning projection of 491, and has a waiting list of 31 students. Blaze, the district’s chief business and finance officer, said the extra seats would be assigned to East Middle School where capacity exists and that there is no guarantee all 31 students will accept offered seats.

The added seats were approved by voice vote after a motion on the floor. Counsel advised the board to wait until after the vote to notify families on the waiting list; families will then be contacted and can choose whether to accept the seat.

Why it matters: administrators said the move shifts revenue assumptions within the preliminary budget — moving some expected revenue from special-education reimbursement to more certain open-enrollment revenue — and reduces reliance on a still-uncertain state aid calculation.

Details: Blaze told the board the district’s cohort numbers make adding seats feasible without creating staffing shortages and that if all 31 students accepted seats the district’s total enrollment projections across cohorts would still align with forecasts. The board discussed capacity at East Middle School and noted West Middle School is near its target level and will not receive additional seats.

The motion to adopt the increase was made and seconded on the record and carried by voice vote with no nay recorded.