Report (pdf) - School Management Services

School District of Bruce, Ladysmith-Hawkins School District, and
Weyerhaeuser Area School District.
A school district’s enrollment trend is a second and equally vital variable for
the organization to consider in mapping the future. Enrollment is the
variable which drives the funding of school districts in the State of
Wisconsin and virtually every other state. Enrollment trends (growth,
stability, and decline) are the harbingers of change in a school district’s
budget, budget reserves, tax rates, staffing, programs and services, facility
needs/utilization, cost/effectiveness, and the organization’s ability to
respond to changes in State requirements, needs, interests, and
expectations (of students, parents, and patrons), as well as many other
operational conditions. It is a certainty that smaller school districts—
experiencing long-term moderate or steep enrollment decline—are much
more vulnerable than school districts able to boast a large critical mass of
students and experiencing stable or increasing enrollment.
2.1 District Size
The School District of Bruce’s, Ladysmith-Hawkins School District’s, and
Weyerhaeuser Area School District’s 2008-09 grade level enrollments are
reported, respectively, in Tables 1-B, 1-LH, and 1-W below.
Table 1-B reports that 511 students were enrolled in the School District of
Bruce in grades P-K-12 during the 2008-09 school year. The school
district’s critical student mass would rank it below the mid-point of size of all
school districts in the State of Wisconsin during the 2008-09 school year.
(In 2007-08, the School District of Bruce ranked 318 th in size among
Wisconsin’s 445 school districts). By State of Wisconsin standards, the
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