More than 600 students enrolled last year in Washington County school districts that weren't their home districts, resulting in a net loss of funding for three districts and a gain for three others that pulled in more students than they sent out.
Warren Local, Wolf Creek Local and Fort Frye Local school districts all came out on the positive side of open enrollment for the last school year, gaining state funding that follows students as they move from district to district.
Belpre City, Marietta City and Frontier Local schools lost more students, and money, than they brought in.
"I think it says a lot about a school district," said Fort Frye Superintendent Matt Dill. "It's definitely a positive thing for us."
The district enrolled 157 students from other districts last year, while 63 Fort Frye resident students left the district. All but 21 of those coming in were attending Beverly-Center Elementary or Fort Frye High School.
The numbers for those coming into the district could be even higher beginning with the next school year, as Fort Frye offers all-day, everyday kindergarten for the first time. Eight kindergarten students went to other districts that offered the full-time program last year.
"We're hoping those numbers will get better now," Dill said.
A lack of the programs they want is just one reason parents say they opt to open enroll their students in other districts.
For Angela Murray, of Lowell, the decision to open enroll her son at Marietta High School several years ago was one made for convenience.
"I worked in Marietta, and I could drop him off and pick him up there easily," she said. "It was a long bus ride for him that he didn't want, and it didn't make sense to go the opposite way I needed to go to take him to Fort Frye."
Other parents move around the county and want to keep their students in the same school system, some live close to district lines and may be nearer a school in another district and others make a decision based on tradition.
"A lot of our applicants are graduates of Waterford High School, and they're tremendously loyal to our community," said Wolf Creek Superintendent Bob Caldwell. "A lot of graduates of Waterford would like for their children to be graduates of Waterford."
The Wolf Creek district lost 42 students to open enrollment last year but gained 60.25 (some in mid-year). The majority came in and went out to the Fort Frye district, with a few entering or leaving Warren and Marietta schools and seven coming into Wolf Creek from Morgan County schools.
There are already 92 applications for the next school year, said Caldwell.
"We've been fortunate for the last 10 years that we've had a gain," he said. "Last year, we had to say no to 25 students. We only have one elementary school and we try to attempt to stay at a teacher-student ratio of 20:1, so sometimes we have to do that."
Those districts that take in students get more per-pupil state funding as a result. That gave Wolf Creek schools a net gain of $104,025 last year and Fort Frye a gain of $448,779.
The Warren Local district brings in about $1.2 million in open enrollment student funding but loses about $610,000 due to district students who go elsewhere, resulting in a net gain of $589,000 this fiscal year.
"We certainly look at those numbers but we don't do anything to advertise, encourage or seek students for open enrollment," said Superintendent Tom Gibbs. "It's the choice of the parents."
A large portion of the students coming into the Warren district are attending Little Hocking Elementary and are residents of either the Belpre City district or the Federal Hocking district in Athens County.
A financial crisis has forced major reductions in the Federal Hocking district in recent years, and its state report card scores are well below any of the Washington County districts for the 2007-2008 school year, which may be factors.
Federal Hocking met only 10 out of 30 state indicators, compared to 22 at neighboring district Warren, according to the Ohio Department of Education.
Belpre City Schools, which also faced financial troubles and a building restructuring plan for the last school year, lost more students to open enrollment in 2008-09 than in previous years.
"That number went up significantly this year," said district Treasurer Eva Yeager.
In the last school year, Belpre had 56.6 students coming in and 96.64 students going out, at a net cost of $228,598.
The year before, that cost was only $92,346.
In that time, the district closed Stone Elementary, made the former Belpre Middle School into a kindergarten-through-sixth-grade building and shifted seventh- and eighth-graders to Belpre High School.
Marietta City Schools loses nearly as much due to open enrollment, with a net loss of $217,651 this year.
They had 72.36 students coming in and 110 going out.
If the district was able to keep all its resident students, they would have an additional $636,096 per year, said Treasurer David Combs.
The Frontier Local district had 38 students leaving the district and 34 coming in through open enrollment last year, leading to a loss of $49,703.
Those have been typical numbers for the district over the last several years, said Treasurer Frank Antill.
"We're normally down a few but it's not a huge number," he said.
