Gilbert Public Schools reports sharp enrollment loss

By Tom Blodgett
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Twitter: @sp_blodgett

Gilbert Public Schools is looking at a possible loss this year of 600 students in “average daily membership,” a key enrollment figure in the state’s education funding formula, district officials said. 

That is 200 more students than the district conservatively projected when putting together its fiscal year 2023-24 budget, Associate Superintendent Bonnie Betz told the GPS Governing Board at its Aug. 22 meeting. 

Average daily membership is the total enrollment of fractional students and full-time students, minus withdrawals, of each school day through the first 100 days for the current year.

The drop could result in a loss of about a million dollars in maintenance and operations funding, requiring a budget revision by Dec. 15, Betz said.  

However, Betz told the board two other developments might offset the loss.  

First, the district is closing out encumbered purchase orders from fiscal year 2022-23 and some spending on blanket purchase orders may be less than anticipated, resulting in an increase in the district’s budget balance carry forward. 

Second, the district set aside a half-million dollars in the budget for a minimum-wage increase in January, but the district’s previous wage increase with the budget increase is enough to cover the required minimum-wage increase, thus freeing up that set-aside money. 

That earned praise from Board Member Jill Humpherys in how the district manages its budget. 

“Without a carefully managed budget, that could be a problem,” she said. “But because it's so carefully managed, I appreciate that we don't have to look forward to budget cuts surrounding having fewer students than we anticipated.” 

Still, the sharp decrease was a concern to the board. Board Member Chad Thompson asked if the district surveys families to see why they have left. 

Superintendent Shane McCord said schools do check in with families who do not show up in the first 10 days without explanation, and it often is they have moved or transferred but forgotten to tell the school they are leaving. But other times, the schools are never able to find out the reason. 

The district has been in a state of declining enrollment for a number of years. In fact, the district has budgeted for a loss of 400 students in ADM since at least fiscal year 2017-18 as a means of conservatively estimating funding from the state, but outside the COVID year of 2020-21, it has always outperformed that mark. 

Board President Lori Wood asked that the district continue to discuss with the board the reasons for the decline and what the district is doing to respond to it. McCord said they are always looking at enrollment. 

“We've been outperforming our projection every year,” he said. "But if you look at certain things that are factors related to that, the birth rate has steadily gone down over years as well as the housing market. It's really difficult for people with young children to move into our area just because of the prices of houses. And so a lot of those things factor in.” 

Betz told the board that in discussions with her peers in school finance at other East Valley districts, many of them are experiencing greater than anticipated losses in ADM and all are looking at the reasons why. 

Betz said after the meeting that one possible reason could be the greatly expanded Empowerment Scholarship Account program, in which parents can have their education tax dollars applied to private tuition costs, a program now open to anyone with students. 

The state reported that as of Aug. 21, 63,680 students are using the program. 

Betz also noted that Gilbert Christian Academy opened a new Val Vista campus in town this school year. 

Tom Blodgett can be reached by email at tblodgett@iniusa.org or follow him @sp_blodgett on X. We would like to invite our readers to submit their civil comments, pro or con, on this issue. Email AZOpinions@iniusa.org. 

Tom Blodgett
Senior News Editor | Gilbert
@sp_blodgett

tblodgett@iniusa.org

Meet Tom
Tom Blodgett joined Independent Newsmedia, Inc., USA, in 2022, when the company acquired Community Impact Newspaper's Phoenix-area properties. Raised in Arizona, he has spent more than 35 years in journalism in the state.

Community: He has served as an instructional professional in the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication since 2005, and is editorial adviser to The State Press, the university's independent student media outlet. He also is director of operations for an 18U girls fastpitch softball team from Gilbert.

Education: Arizona State University with a BS in Journalism. 

Random Fact: He lived in Belgium during his freshman year of high school.  

Hobbies: Tweeting enthusiastically about ASU softball (season-ticket holder) and grumpily about other local sports (pessimistic fan).