Certified enrollment numbers show sharp drop at H-D

The recently released certified enrollment numbers reflect a significant decline in students at Hampton-Dumont schools.

Certified enrollment, used to calculate funding for each district with the Iowa School Finance Formula, shows both the number of school eligible students living in a community and the amount of those students who attend that community’s school.

For 2020, Hampton-Dumont landed at 1,042.6 students attending the H-D district, down 67.5 students from 1110.10 in 2019. The certified enrollment, which is the total amount of students living within district boundaries but not necessarily attending H-D, came in at 1120.67 students, down from 1,169.60 students.

“I don’t think anyone in North Iowa lost that many kids, so that was kind of alarming to us,” said Superintendent Todd Lettow.

Lettow said that drop is significant because of its financial implications on the district. For each student that attends H-D, the district receives $7,048. That equals a loss of $345,000 for the 2022 Fiscal Year.

“That’s something we’ll have to plan for not next year, but the year after that,” he said. “We do have the 101 percent budget guarantee that helps us soften that blow. If you’re going to decline in enrollment, you get that cushion year to plan for the decline.”

Lettow said this will require a close analysis of the budget for that year but no discussions have been made as far as where to make up for lost funds but said some “tough decisions” may lay ahead.

“We’re trying to look at all the options as we go into this,” he said. “We were going to cut $300,000 for the current school year we’re in and then cut another $300,000 next year and with the decline in enrollment, we’re going to have to add another $345,000 to the year after that.

Lettow said the sole source of the drop off was not immediately known but pointed to a couple factors that might have led to the decrease. He said the COVID-19 pandemic may have played a role as families moved to seek employment or students left school to help at home.

He noted that two significant sources of the decline were the high school, which lost 25 students, and low numbers in both preschool and kindergarten. He said the district has made efforts to bring back students who dropped out of high school and initiated conversation with parents who may have held their children out of preschool and kindergarten.

The numbers for CAL, however, increased this year. CAL for 2020 has 99 students, up from 96 in 2019.

“When you have a big building like that to operate with that amount of kids, things are pretty tight and you have to watch the pennies, so it’s nice to know we don’t have to make adjustments because of this,” Lettow said of the increase.

Lettow said he’s been pleased to see the numbers continue to rise at CAL over the years and partially credits the initiative of administration and staff to continue to install new programs, such as the school’s farm to classroom curriculum.

“We’ve been able to do some things over at CAL that larger schools wouldn’t be able to do and it’s kind of our hope that may be something to attract people,” he said. “The farm, the greenhouse…that’s not normally what kids their age are exposed to.

“Keeping the building spruced up and up to date helps with the overall demeanor too,” he added. “It’s a nice little building.”