Board directs start of plan to end open enrollment for most nonresidents, tasking superintendent with tiered tuition proposal

The Stow-Munroe Falls City School District board on April 27 voted to direct the superintendent to begin the process of eliminating the district's current open enrollment program for new nonresident students, with an explicit exception to allow rising seniors to remain, and to draft a tiered non-resident tuition plan.

District staff presented five options for limiting or eliminating open enrollment and a separate tuition model intended to recover costs while limiting harm to families already enrolled. Christy Prof., presenting the fiscal analysis, told the board the district currently has 334 open‑enrolled students and that, under Ohio's fair school funding calculations, the threshold at which state funding reductions would kick in for the district is 314 students. “We anticipate a state funding loss of $450,881.85” under complete elimination scenarios while the district also identified potential savings from staff reductions and per-student supply and licensing costs, Prof. said.

The presentation outlined trade-offs: one scenario that bans new open enrollment across K–12 projected the largest state funding loss but also the largest operational savings; other models restricted cutoffs by grade (for example, ending K–10 open enrollment but allowing current 11th–12th graders to remain) and showed smaller net impacts. The staff also modeled a tuition approach that assumed 25% of current nonresident families would opt to stay under a paid tuition plan and proposed tiered annual tuition ranges (K–4 at about $5,000; grades 5–8 at about $6,500; grades 9–12 at about $8,000) subject to statutory caps.

Board members framed the vote as a fiscal measure intended to protect the district’s core programs while minimizing disruption to students already attending. One board member moved that the superintendent begin the phase-out (with the rising-seniors exception) and develop a tiered, nonresident tuition program; the motion was seconded and carried by roll call. Board members asked staff to return with a phase-out timeline, a draft tuition schedule, and a fiscal-impact analysis that included sensitivity to changes in CTE/CCP enrollments and transportation costs.

Community speakers during public comment urged careful treatment of students who have built relationships in the district. Resident Suher Hook, who spoke during the meeting’s second public-comment period, described her family’s long involvement with Stow schools and said ending open enrollment would “send a message to our families who actively serve and support the community that our contributions are not valued in return.”

The board gave staff direction to prepare formal policy and administrative-guideline language and said it may consider formal action at its next meeting; members also discussed whether to expedite readings to give families clarity before the coming school year. The board emphasized that any tuition policy would need separate administrative rules and would not supplant statutory open‑enrollment protections for certain groups (for example, military families).