Eager to boost enrollment, Denver school board members hope the lure of cash will spur principals to recruit more students into their buildings.
The Denver Public Schools board gave a tentative nod at a budget retreat last week to a plan that could let schools keep about $1,500 extra in per-pupil funding for each student they bring in who is not currently enrolled in another Denver public school.
While some details still need to be worked out, board members say dangling this kind of carrot should help curb a problem that is causing financial headaches: fewer students filling district seats.
Projections for the 2006-07 school year show that 267 fewer students could attend all DPS schools than this school year, the first overall decline since 2003. This costs because each student means money to the district. There are currently 73,018 students in DPS.
“I found as a businessperson that if there’s an incentive, things tend to happen,” said board member Bruce Hoyt, who was behind the idea.
Hoyt said improving Denver schools academically will be the strongest tool for recruiting, but “we have very good stories to tell at a lot of our schools,” he said.
Each student is worth about $6,300 per school year in state and federal funding to the district. Currently, schools get about 55 percent of that, roughly $3,400, and the rest goes back to district administration to cover other costs, such as utilities.
The proposal on the table would give schools about $1,500 more. There would be few restrictions on how principals could spend that money.
“It’d be pretty free. If you’re trying to provide an incentive, the notion is that it should be quite flexible for them (principals),” said Richard Allen, assistant superintendent.
Yet to be worked out is whether the money will go to schools for every year that they keep the new students or whether it would be a one-time bonus. Also, district staff will figure out whether distinctions should be made for schools in booming growth areas versus schools near boundary lines with other districts competing for students, Allen said.
Board members probably won’t vote on the proposal until March.
Some schools that are at or above capacity wouldn’t get to participate.
“This is not punitive,” Hoyt said. “It’s like, ‘I’m not harmed because I didn’t improve my enrollment, but I was sure helped because I improved my enrollment.”‘
Charles Babb, the principal at Phillips Preparatory School, said he loves the idea. Babb has gone door-to-door, handed out fliers and “talked to every parent I possibly can” about attending his underenrolled Park Hill elementary school of 187 students.
Babb even recruited a few families displaced by Hurricane Katrina into Phillips when they were temporarily living at Lowry.
“We’re in customer relations,” he said. “It would be great to get a little money to the school so I could bring even more programs to my building.”
Staff writer Allison Sherry can be reached at 303-820-1377 or asherry@denverpost.com.
