FDBD – Enrollment Projections

Descriptor Code: FDBD
Enrollment Projections

The Cherokee County Board of Education utilizes its facilities and establishes school attendance areas based upon current and projected enrollment, total student population and core capacity of facilities. Accordingly, the Superintendent will oversee processes by which the School District determines critically overcrowded schools and recommend appropriate solutions for subsequent utilization of the facilities.

I. STANDARDS FOR DETERMINING CRITICALLY OVERCROWDED SCHOOLS

1. Utilizing short- and long-term student enrollment projections and the 20-day student enrollment count of each school year, the Superintendent of Schools will evaluate impact of projected and actual student enrollment to determine critically overcrowded schools.
2. Schools will be deemed critically overcrowded when they exceed, or projected to exceed, 140% of their enrollment capacity, as reflected in the Cherokee County Inventory of School Housing (CCISH) and when they meet other criteria affecting overall capacity including, but not limited to the following: Available portables, classrooms needed for special programs, site limitations, cafeteria and other core capacity (e.g., parking, student lockers, cafeteria usage, water/septic/sewer requirements, space available for additional portables, etc.).
3. A current school attendance area map, present and projected student population demographic dates, a copy of the CCISH, and the current inventory of portables will be supplied to each critically overcrowded school for review by the Principal, staff, and community.
4. As a part of an inclusive review process, the Principal of each critically overcrowded school will consider strategies from the following menu for addressing critical overcrowding and forward all stakeholder-identified options to the Superintendent.
   a. Additional portables (dependent upon available portables and/or available funds to purchase, move, and/or hookup portables to be provided by the School District).
   b. Enrollment capping (i.e., school cannot accommodate any more students and new students will be assigned to designated schools that are less crowded).
   c. Flexible school day/week/monthly/year scheduling (including, but not limited to):
      (1) Extended school day
         (a)Multiple period high school day
         (b)Double sessions
     (2) Multi-track year-round education program
     (3) ½ day Kindergarten
     (4) Dual enrollment programs with institutions of higher learning
     (5) Other school day/week/month/year models that may be identified through this process. 
   d. Attendance area changes (in conjunction with the Attendance Area Focus Group Process).
   e. Reconfigured grades/educational programs and sites, dependent on available capital funds to be provided by the School District and/or other individuals/groups/entities (including, but not limited to):
     (1) Kindergarten Center
     (2) Primary Grade Center (e.g., K-1, K-2, 1-2)
    (3) Intermediate Grade Center (e.g., 3-5, 5-6)
    (4) K-8 Center
    (5) Single Grade Center (e.g., 6,9)
    (6) Other configurations that may be identified by the Principal, staff, and community through this process
   f. Managing the overcrowded condition and employing methods to reduce the negative impact.
   g. Other proposed options that will achieve the desired result (i.e., relieve overcrowding…without having to allocate additional capital outlay resources that are not available).
5. Alternative student enrollment options that impact other schools must be recommended collaboratively by both sending and receiving schools.
6. Criteria for determining preferred alternative student enrollment options for critically overcrowded schools include, but are not limited to, a review of the following:
   a. Welfare, health and safety of students and faculty/staff
   b. Impact on the overall facility, (including ingress and egress problems)
   c. Impact on facility core, such as campus cafeteria and media center
   d. Amount of funding dedicated to the classroom through the instructional allocation (including, but not limited to, books, equipment, supplies and educational material).
   e. Number of floating teachers
   f. Divided/partitioned classrooms
   g. Full classroom use of small rooms (e.g., resource rooms, conference rooms)
   h. Class size (student/teacher/paraprofessional ratio)
   i. Number of available portables and their impact on student learning potential and staff morale.
   j. Site acreage
   k. Playground/sports/recreation areas
   l. Planned future renovations and /or replacement of facility 
   m. Restroom facilities
   n. Impact on community/neighborhood
   o. Analysis of fiscal impact
7. The Chief Support Services Officer (CSSO) will ensure that the Principal facilitates the following:
   a. Meets with the shareholders to review all options viewed as appropriate.
   b. Schedules day and evening presentations for stakeholders with equal time for each option deemed appropriate.
   c. Gains broad consensus on proposed alternative student enrollment options among staff, parents and other stakeholders.
If consensus cannot be reached, the CCSO will make a recommendation to the Superintendent on a proposed alternative student enrollment option.
   d. Observes the pre-determined deadline for a recommendation in this regard to the Superintendent.
8. The Superintendent will make a recommendation if deemed necessary to the School Board regarding attendance area adjustments.

II. STANDARDS FOR ADDRESSING AND MITIGATING THE IMPACT OF DEVELOPMENT

1. The Superintendent and School Board will give developers of new residential subdivisions the opportunity to mitigate their impact upon the School District. Residents of any development in which the developer has chosen not to provide the requested level of mitigation that would offset some of the impact of said development will be given priority status for implementation of the aforementioned options.
2. A local governmental entity seeking School Board approval to establish a Tax Allocation District (TAD) or other authorized measure designed or intended to intercept or seek School Board approval to intercept school funding (“Tax Intercept Program” “TIP”) is required to submit a written proposal in this regard to the School Board. The TIP proposal of such local governmental entity must be approved by the School Board prior to TIP implementation and must adhere to the following requirements:
• every local governmental entity seeking School Board approval of a proposed TIP is required to provide the public with timely, official notice regarding the manner in which TIP revenue will be generated (i.e., by freezing School District property taxes at current levels for the prescribed number of years authorized in the TIP);
• except as otherwise approved by the School Board, each TIP must be limited to development of public and commercial property (not residential);
• for the School District’s strategic planning, budgeting and accountability purposes, all TIP financial/tax data (including the most recent three-year property appraisal data for all property within the proposed TIP) must be delineated in the proposal; additionally, the proposed TIP must also reflect the estimated amount of future revenue which will be lost by the School District for each year of TIP implementation . . . both at the proposal stage and, on an updated/actual basis, each year thereafter;
• the amount of time for a TIP to be utilized must be limited to no more than 20 years; and,
• a School District representative appointed by the Superintendent must be included on the local governmental entity’s TIP planning committee for these purposes.

ADOPTED: August 2, 2001        REVISED: July 16, 2020