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Board reviews draft open-enrollment seats for 2025–26 and proposes sibling-preference change
Summary
Assistant Superintendent Jared Rosing presented draft open-enrollment seat counts for 2025–26 and proposed a policy change that would make sibling placement a preference rather than a guaranteed enrollment; the board discussed draft count of 181 seats and program constraints.
Assistant Superintendent for Business Operations Jared Rosing told the Middleton-Cross Plains Area School District board on Jan. 13 that the district plans to propose 181 new open-enrollment seats for the 2025–26 school year and to change the policy that currently guarantees enrollment for siblings of attending open-enrolled students to a preference.
Why it matters: The board must set open-enrollment numbers and any local policy changes by January so the district can publish seat availability ahead of the state open-enrollment application window. Rosing said the district uses open enrollment to maintain class-size midpoints as resident enrollment declines and to avoid adding recurring staff costs driven by over-enrolling.
Rosing reviewed the district’s approach to calculating seats: starting with current enrolled students (including returning open-enrollment students), projecting resident growth, and then opening remaining capacity as open-enrollment seats. He said the district approved 255 new open-enrollment seats the previous year and that about 118 of those seats were filled, a roughly 45% fill rate. Rosing described the draft 181 figure as preliminary and said final numbers will return to the board in January for formal approval after the district’s second Friday count and further verification.
On services for private schools, the special-education presentation earlier in the meeting had clarified that the district provides speech-language services under equitable-service rules but does not send special-education teachers to private schools.
Policy change under consideration: Rosing said the district’s current policy guarantees siblings of currently attending open-enrollment students a seat; staff recommended removing the guaranteed sibling clause and instead granting siblings preference on the wait list. The change aims to reduce situations in which sibling guarantees push class sizes above the district midpoint and require additional staffing. Under the proposed approach, siblings would move to the top of the preference list and would only enter a random draw if the number of sibling preferences exceeded available seats.
Board members asked about grade bands that tend to fill (4K/kindergarten, fifth/sixth and ninth grade), about geographic patterns in applicants (many applicants live in neighboring Madison), and about transportation (the district does not provide busing for open-enrollment students). Rosing reiterated that the district is not using open enrollment to add sections or positions but to balance class sizes.
Next steps: Staff will return with finalized seat numbers and any recommended policy language for board action at the next meeting.
