At a Urbandale Community School Board meeting (date not specified in the transcript), staff reported a decline in certified enrollment that will affect state funding for the district in the following fiscal year.

Unidentified Speaker 7 (Administrator) told trustees the district's certified enrollment was down by 117 students from projections, and staff are analyzing 10 years of enrollment history to understand trends. "It's down 117," the presenter said, adding that certified counts drive next-year funding.

Staff and trustees converted the head-count to a funding estimate during discussion. Unidentified Speaker 2 (Staff member) said, "It's about 940,000," when asked to translate the enrollment shortfall to dollars, indicating the potential order of magnitude of next year's funding reduction.

Board members and staff discussed several likely contributors: a smaller kindergarten cohort born during the COVID years, population aging in some neighborhoods, increased use of Education Savings Accounts (ESAs) by families, open-enrollment movement, and a lack of entry-level housing that can limit district growth. Staff cautioned that ESA data and residency matching are imperfect and that some ESA enrollments may never have been registered as Urbandale students.

Board members requested further breakdowns by grade level and asked staff to develop more detailed enrollment trend analyses and projections. Trustees also discussed potential facility planning and program decisions tied to enrollment trends and cautioned that funding effects would be realized in the next fiscal year rather than immediately.

The meeting also included school-team recognitions and a roll-call approval of the consent agenda later in the session.

Sources: Transcript of Urbandale Community School Board meeting (enrollment discussion, funding estimate and board Q&A).