Garbage in Garbage out
Now back to the current growth of the PLSD. The actually ADM enrollment figures said there were 9713 kids in the school system that showed up on that day in October 2005. So if the ADM in 2006 was 10,018 then the school enrollment increased by 3%. That is down from the averages over the last 10 years of 5.5%.
The second point is that I have read that the single family building permits in both the city (Pickerington) and the township (I have no idea what is happening in the Columbus part of the district) are down over half from last year. Then I would not expect a 3% increase this October. In fact something along the line of a 2% increase or less would be closer to reflecting the decrease in the building permits being issued.
I know I have heard for years that Lew Stemen would count swing sets in back yard to determine future enrollments. I think if the schools wanted to really inform the public they would have real time data. I am sure after the October ADM counts (which only counts the kids that show up that day) the number of students registered will change weekly the entire year. I can't believe our school administrators don't keep track of ''TRENDS'' as the school year progresses. How do they adjust for teachers, classrooms, and bus routes?
In addition, I think we can NOT relate population growth in the city and the township ''directly'' to school population growth. The population growth in the community relates directly to the housing available. Larger single family homes produce more school age children than any other single zoning district. In some cases apartments are providing positive cash flow (providing more tax revenues than the costs of the students they produce) to the school district.
So before we find ourselves making radical decisions we need to know the facts. Because of the delay in data from and to the ODE I would not reply too heavily on that data.
By Oldtimer
Now back to the current growth of the PLSD. The actually ADM enrollment figures said there were 9713 kids in the school system that showed up on that day in October 2005. So if the ADM in 2006 was 10,018 then the school enrollment increased by 3%. That is down from the averages over the last 10 years of 5.5%.
The second point is that I have read that the single family building permits in both the city (Pickerington) and the township (I have no idea what is happening in the Columbus part of the district) are down over half from last year. Then I would not expect a 3% increase this October. In fact something along the line of a 2% increase or less would be closer to reflecting the decrease in the building permits being issued.
I know I have heard for years that Lew Stemen would count swing sets in back yard to determine future enrollments. I think if the schools wanted to really inform the public they would have real time data. I am sure after the October ADM counts (which only counts the kids that show up that day) the number of students registered will change weekly the entire year. I can't believe our school administrators don't keep track of ''TRENDS'' as the school year progresses. How do they adjust for teachers, classrooms, and bus routes?
In addition, I think we can NOT relate population growth in the city and the township ''directly'' to school population growth. The population growth in the community relates directly to the housing available. Larger single family homes produce more school age children than any other single zoning district. In some cases apartments are providing positive cash flow (providing more tax revenues than the costs of the students they produce) to the school district.
So before we find ourselves making radical decisions we need to know the facts. Because of the delay in data from and to the ODE I would not reply too heavily on that data.
By Oldtimer