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Hernando Today

The Magic Number: Schools Await Enrollment Data

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By LINNEA BROWN

Published: August 29, 2008

BROOKSVILLE - Four days before the conclusion of the "10-day count," local school district officials are starting to wonder if they're going to get as many students as they expected.

On Wednesday, 22,399 students had been counted at Hernando County Schools, or 433 less than projected. At $3,998 in state funding for each student, that would equal a shortfall in revenue to the district of $1,731,134.

The first 10 days of school are considered the most important for the district's staff, attendance-wise. That's because those are the numbers that district officials will look at when determining if teachers need to be transferred between schools to create more or fewer classes as specific schools.

By Tuesday — the 10th day — teachers will be moved as needed between schools.

This likely means moving teachers from schools such as Deltona Elementary School in Spring Hill, where enrollment is down, to schools such as the new Explorer K-8 in Spring Hill. On Wednesday, Deltona had 138 fewer students than expected, while Explorer had 227 more students than expected, nearly topping 2,000 students.

"Teachers will be moved as we need to from schools that are under projection to those that are over projection, or there will be staff changes within the district," said business services director Heather Martin. "We're looking at numbers, and working out the (switches) with principals and the teachers' union right now."

The other schools in the district that boasted enrollment increases were Brooksville and Suncoast elementary schools, J.D. Floyd K-8, Powell Middle School and Nature Coast Technical High School.

As of Wednesday, the rest had fewer students than anticipated.

The district has until October to get the district's enrollment up. That's when each child is counted for state enrollment numbers, which determines how much the district will receive in per-student funding.

"That's when our budget will be cut, if we don't (make projected enrollment)," Martin said.

At that point, some teachers could lose their jobs, she said.

"If we get to the point where we'd have to cut more positions, we'd have to do a reduction in force," Martin said. "There's no 'magic number' of when that happens. We'll continue to monitor our enrollment, but we can't predict that at this point."

Reporter Linnea Brown can be reached at 352-544-5289 or lbrown@hernandotoday.com.

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