Oak Creek-Franklin board hears concerns about open enrollment and district capacity; staff outlines math for seat limits

At the Jan. 12 meeting William (Bill) McIntosh urged the Oak Creek-Franklin board to reconsider the district’s reliance on open enrollment to fill budget gaps, citing state Department of Public Instruction (DPI) numbers and rising per-student costs. “Open enrollment students bring state aid, but they do not contribute to local property tax funding,” McIntosh said, and he cited per-student figures he found on DPI resources and estimated open-enrolled students at roughly 13.5% of enrollment.

District staff explained how open-enrollment capacity is calculated: planners use last year’s enrollment by grade, applied population projections, and reserve seats for projected housing growth; elementary caps are based on a 25-student target per class multiplied by the number of sections across seven elementary schools. Staff noted the method accounts for special-education seat needs and that available seats districtwide—not per individual school—determine how many nonresident students the district could accept.

Staff emphasized that available seats do not guarantee applications and that at the high-school level the district has fewer open seats; 11th and 12th grades were recommended closed for open enrollment in the 2026–27 proposal because projected enrollment exceeds available spots. Board members asked whether accepting seats now could create capacity problems later; staff replied that section elimination and numerical modeling (roll-up cohort analysis) manage downstream effects.

Why this matters: Open enrollment affects district funding mixes, classroom sizes and program offerings; the discussion ties to local taxpayers’ concerns about who benefits from state aid and how the district balances resident enrollment with nonresident transfers.

Next steps: Board staff will bring a recommended open-enrollment limits item to the Jan. 26 meeting for action.