Medford implements changes to better track student enrollment

The Medford School District learned the value of the adage of measuring twice and cutting once and it is a lesson that district administrator Laura Lundy, who has led the district since July, is taking to heart.

Lundy has worked with school financial and clerical staff to implement new processes with additional checks to prevent a repeat of a reporting error that cost the district a portion of its state aid last school year. Under the new process, administrative office staff have been checking enrollment in each of the buildings on a monthly basis rather than on a twice yearly basis.

“Every month we are checking it, like a checkbook,” Lundy said. In addition, the district has cross trained additional people in entering and checking the information.

School districts are required to report to the state the number of students in attendance on the third Friday in September and the second Friday in January. The counts are used to determine the amount of state aid the district will receive versus how much of the budget comes from local taxes.

The reports are entered manually and last fall human error led to the incorrect total being submitted to the state showing a higher student enrollment. According to school finance director Audra Brooks, the mistake was caught by the school district following the January enrollment count when the two numbers did not match.

According to Brooks, the district immediately contacted the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction to alert the state of the error and find out what needed to be done to fix it. School board members were also notified of the error and the plans to rectify it.

Brooks said the error was a discrepancy of 17 students above the three year rolling averages used for school funding. While not discounting that the error occurred, she noted there were factors which contributed to it taking place. Last fall, the district’s enrollment changed as a result of the expansion of the 4K program. Added to this is the number of students that enter or leave the district through open enrollment throughout the year. The new processes put in place with monthly counts and additional cross training will help reduce the chance for an error in the future.

Statewide, districts having errors in their enrollment counts is not unusual, resulting in districts either over or under levying. Because state law limits the amount school districts can receive in total revenue per student, the state’s correction is to reduce the amount of aid the district receives in the June state aid payment. For Medford, the result was a $187,000 reduction in the state aid amount. This did not impact the overall budget for the district, but since the reduction came from the state aid, it meant that district taxpayers paid a higher share of budget expenses last year. In relation to the total revenue limit reported by the state for the district, the overage accounts for 0.8% of the overall.

During the 2023-2024 school year, 160 districts were either under or over their allowable levy. Medford was one of 65 districts that over-levied last year.

For its part, Brooks said the district took steps to tighten spending to anticipate a reduction in aid. In doing so, the district ended the year with a positive budget balance which allowed money to be put into fund balance and Fund 46 which will help with future expenses in the district. In addition, Brooks said the district is proposing a lower budget than a year ago. “No one makes an error on purpose,” Brooks said, noting that school budgets and levies are complex with many factors which impact them. With improvements to tracking student enrollment across the district throughout the year and additional cross training, the goal is to prevent future errors from occurring.