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Pulaski board approves open‑enrollment caps; kindergarten and first‑grade spaces limited
Summary
The board approved the district's recommended open‑enrollment seat caps for 2025, with modest openings in 4‑K and limited spots at elementary and middle grades based on projected staffing and class‑size formulas.
The Pulaski Community School District board voted to approve open‑enrollment seat caps for the coming school year after administrators reviewed projected staffing, class‑size limits and five‑year historical application averages.
Why it matters: open‑enrollment caps determine how many nonresident students the district can accept into each grade and affect class sizes, staffing and long‑term revenue.
Administrator Allison presented the district's method for calculating open‑enrollment seats: she said the district uses projected staffing, enrollment and maximum class sizes by building to recommend openings. Dana ran historical spreadsheets that showed how past cohorts influenced typical enrollment inflow. Allison told the board that the district could, in planning, accommodate up to 272 full‑day 4‑K seats and recommended a limit of 30 open seats for 4‑K in the coming year.
Key details presented to the board included: - For full‑day 4‑K the district reported capacity for 272 students and recommended 30 open seats. - Kindergarten openings were recommended at 12 seats and first grade at 9 seats, based on historical five‑year averages of actual applications (the district reported a five‑year kindergarten average of about 11.6 applicants). - At the middle school level administrators limited open enrollment to six spots overall and specifically said only sixth grade would have openings (they reduced planned middle‑school class size from 30 to 27 to create available seats).
Julie (student services staff) explained the district's approach for students with individualized education plans: the district uses a separate capacity analysis for special education, and projected openings were set at 7 elementary special‑education seats, 13 at the middle school and 16 at the high school. Some service areas such as physical therapy are delivered through contract providers and were not being opened for transfer enrollment.
Board action: a motion to approve the open‑enrollment spaces as presented passed by voice vote; the board did not record a roll‑call tally in the minutes.
Ending: Administrators said they will continue calling families on preliminary lists to confirm summer plans and will finalize actual class staffing after those confirmations; the board directed staff to return with any changes that emerge during staffing work in late spring.
