Academy District 20 opens school choice applications amid drop in enrollment
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) Academy District 20 is now accepting school choice applications from families who live within district boundaries.
By January, the application will be open to all families; regardless of where they live.
District 20 leaders say applicant turn-out will play a big role in next year’s budget.
As of October, leaders say they're down about 900 students; which has big consequences when it comes to how much money they get from the state.
They say each student’s enrollment brings about $8,000 dollar to the district.
They’re hoping to make up for the loss by extending the school choice application window from February to March.
“We think parents have literally said, 'we’re going to take a break this year, we’re just not going to send kids to school,' which could be catastrophic if it continues,” says Allison Cortez, Chief Communication Officer for District 20.
Cortez says they're especially hoping families with kids in kindergarten apply.
“We have noticed our kindergarteners just didn’t show up with year. So we better have double the amount of kids, ‘cause if we don’t, that means we’ve lost a lot of students,” says Cortez.
District 20 leaders say they do not believe students from their schools went to other districts, because other districts are seeing drops in enrollment too.
Widefield School District 3 says they’re down 500 kids.
District 11 says they’re down more than 1,800.
School choice applications are open at those districts, as well.
District 20 says regardless of current staff shortages and capacity limits - they are still accepting students based on pre-covid classroom sizes.
“We’re going to accept as many students as we have seats available," says Cortez. "We aren’t going to let Covid shrink those numbers down. If there is a seat, we’re going to fill it."
Cortez says they don’t have a hard number of how many students they expect to enroll next school year.
The in-district priority school choice application window is open from December 1 through December 18.
For families outside of district boundaries, the application will open on January 4, 2021, and closes on March 17.
