Arcadia votes not to cap regular open enrollment in 2022-23

Open enrollment into the Arcadia School District will not see any limitations in the 2022-23 school year for most students.

The Arcadia school board voted at its meeting last Monday to allow open enrollment into the district for regular K-12 enrollment, also voting not to allow open enrollment for any new special education students. 

Special education students already open enrolled into the district will remain in the district, Superintendent Lance Bagstad told the Times.

This will be the third straight year that the district has capped its special education programs due to a lack of space and staff availability, Bagstad said.

“In special education there’s a matrix that’s used to determine what a proper caseload would be for staff. And where we are staffed right now, those caseload numbers through that matrix are at their maximum,” he said.

Open enrollment applications for regular education has been in single digits the last few years, Bagstad said, but the number of students enrolling into the district has been higher than those leaving. 

Most students who enroll out of the district are those who never attended district schools, he said. 

Open enrollment applications depend on local district policies. Students do not have to reapply for open enrollment every year in Arcadia, but that decision depends on resident district policies.

The school board also voted to approve part-time open enrollment last Monday, meaning a student from outside the district could be allowed to take up to two  elective courses a trimester at Arcadia, provided there is space in the class. 

Part-time enrollment isn’t all that common, Bagstad said, but they do occasionally have homeschooled or other area district students who participate. 

Open enrollment issues could lead to different conversations in the future. 

With multiple housing projects coming to the city and the district becoming more full each year, Arcadia could soon have to change the way it handles open enrollment if it sees a “drastic” change in enrollment, Bagstad said.

Class sizes in elementary and middle school range between 80-100 students, Bagstad said, but in high school those numbers typically grow because private schools in town don’t offer high school education. 

If those class sizes start to push over 125 students space would become an issue, so the district is monitoring how the housing developments affect enrollment.

“If all of a sudden we start seeing a drastic increase in the student population of resident students. … that (open enrollment caps) might be something we have to consider if our class sizes get too big. … it’s just not something that at this moment in time we’re considering for next year.”