Independence to accept open enrollments for traditional K-12 education, close for special ed
There is space in the Independence School District for more students to open enroll into the district, and the Independence school board last Tuesday voted to keep such enrollment open for the 2024-25 school year as a result.
School districts each January are required to indicate whether they will accept students who live in outside district boundaries to open enroll into their schools based on class sizes and school space.
In Independence next year, enrollment will be open for K-12 classrooms in typical education, but special education classrooms do not have space for more students to open enroll.
“We have plenty of room for regular education open enrollment students to come to Independence and receive the wonderful education that we provide,” Independence Administrator/High School Principal Paul Franzwa told the board on Tuesday.
Second grade figures to be the biggest age in the elementary school next year with 29 students, while sixth grade expects 33 students.
Most grades are split into two classrooms that are built for a maximum of 25 to 28 students in the elementary and middle school. Kindergarten enrollment next fall is estimated to be 19 students total.
Board member Bob Guza spoke on the district’s ability to accept more students in open enrollment, referencing a document the board was given that shows the district could fit 340 more students into its classrooms based on classroom maximum students.
“How do we keep hearing how we are cramped for space in this school? … It’s mind-boggling that we are out of room in this school,” Guza said, suggesting that possibly having two teachers in one room could be the right way to teach some ages.
“The space thing, to have 12, 14 kids in a room, I just don’t think it’s justified. And then we sit there and talk about adding on to the school, it doesn’t add up to me at all. We’re not using the space we have in the school, not to its fullest.”
Next year’s second grade level expects 29 students total in two classrooms, and Franzwa said that would be too many kids to have in one classroom even with the two teachers. The district could look at having two teachers in one room instead of two separate classrooms at the kindergarten level, Franzwa said.
“I do believe there is more room in classrooms, but I will say. … when you have 14 kids in an elementary classroom, can we put more in there? Absolutely we have room for more students in classrooms. But we are using every square inch of this building, 100 percent,” Franzwa said, pointing to the choir room being used as a math classroom and the home economics classroom being used as two separate classrooms as examples.
Guza also mentioned the choir room, saying that next year’s smaller kindergarten class being in one room instead of two could provide a way to open up space.
“My frustration comes in I wish we had a choir room, and we could have it if you would maybe join some smaller classes to justify the room space,” he said. “I hate when you take away other rooms to justify putting 10 kids each in a room. I just don’t think that adds up.”
Board member Jen Rombalski said she thinks there is more to the data and applying the information to whether or not the district should add to the school wouldn’t make sense.
Franzwa said the bottom line is that the school would be happy to accept more students.
“I think we’re all on the same page that we have room to accept more students, and I think if we accepted that many, just looking at how this building operates would change drastically. … before we start talking about an $8 to $10 million addition we still have room for more students to come here,” Franzwa said.
Special education spacing is tighter in the district, which is down to three special education teachers for 44 special education students.
The district has kept special education enrollment open in recent years, but the district is down a special education teacher from last year. They posted the teaching position but received no applications.
