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District reports 61-student enrollment increase; officials note 32 teaching vacancies
Summary
The district reported an increase of 61 students on the Sept. 30 unit count, a gain of roughly 11 units over last year. Superintendent Dr. Burrows and Dr. Small also noted staffing gaps: 32 full-time teacher vacancies and 11 paraprofessional openings, concentrated in special programs.
Appoquinimink School District officials reported Oct. 7 that September 30 enrollment increased by 61 students compared with last year, generating nearly 11 additional funding units for the district.
Division 1 unit counts are based on standard enrollment plus special education and vocational units. "When you do that using that algorithm, the Appoquinimink School District's ... comes up with 1,046.83 division units, which ... were up by 10.97 units," Dr. Small said while presenting the unit-count report.
Superintendent Dr. Burrows told the board earlier in the meeting that the district currently has 32 full-time teaching openings and 11 full-time paraprofessional openings, "most of those are in our special programs," he said.
Why it matters: units drive state allocations for staffing and funding; growing units can bring additional funding but require hiring to serve students. Board members asked whether increases in units were driven by special education counts; Dr. Small replied that the special-education breakout contributed to the year-to-year difference.
Ending: Officials thanked school secretaries and staff for extra work to reconcile counts this year after a new system rollout created some data challenges. The district said it will present more detailed staffing plans as it moves to fill vacancies.
