Marathon sets strict enrollment limitations

By Kevin O’Brien

During a discussion about open enrollment last week, Marathon High School principal Dave Beranek told school board members that overcrowding will soon become an issue in grades nine through 12, just as it has been for years at the elementary and middle schools. “It’s going to be a real strain on the resources we currently have in place,” he told the board. “We would have to start making adjustments.” Faced with a steadily increasing student population, the Marathon School Board voted Jan. 10 to set strict limits on open enrollment for the 2024-2025 school year, with new enrollees allowed in only three grades – four-year-old kindergarten (five students), first (three) and ninth (eight). District administrator Rick Parks said all of the other grades were “zeroed out,” meaning that no new students from outside the district will be accepted next school year.

Previously, no open enrollment limits had been set at the high school, but with the student population projected to top 300 in the next four years, board members agreed with the administration’s recommendation to only allow eight new open enrollees in the freshmen class.

“We’re being proactive in placing zeroes where they are right now,” said board president Jodi DeBroux.

Parks said he came up with the eight-student limit based on the past four years’ worth of open enrollment data, which showed at most five applications being submitted for ninth grade, in the 2022-2023 school year. The highest projected enrollment for next

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Dave Beranek Enrollment

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school year is 73 students in eleventh grade, and ninth grade is currently predicted to have 65 students, so Parks used the difference as a recommended limit so the grades would potentially be “even.” However, enrollment numbers can change during the school year, making the projection process trickier. Max Wienke, principal of Marathon Area Elementary School and Marathon Venture Academy, said five new students recently enrolled just after the winter break.

“We just never know when some students are going to be here,” Parks said, noting that the district is continuing to communicate with village officials about the impact of several new housing developments going up.

Board member Lia Klumpyan said board members “need to seriously look at closing open enrollment” altogether for the sake of students who live in the district.

“We can’t put ourselves in a squeezebox where we have no room for any of these kids as they move into the district,” she said. “That’s my personal opinion, but we’re getting to the point where we’re going to overextend our rooms again and be in serious trouble – with another referendum or another addition to our building.”

Beranek said he regularly tracks the number of students at St. Mary’s School and “casts” those numbers forward to get an idea of how many kids will be enrolling in the high school in the future, but that can change if more families move into the district.

Board member Ted Knoeck said he’s “struggling” with what to do after hearing Beranek’s projections, but he feels likes board members’ hands are tied when it comes to open enrollment. He said the board has done “the best we can” to accommodate all of the new development in the area, but the decisions are “very difficult.”

“We have to look at our classes, too, because we have standards in this district, and academically, they’re high,” he said. “We have to make sure we maintain these class sizes because we don’t have room to start splitting more classrooms.”

A total of 130 non-resident students are currently open-enrolled into the district (63 out), and the district’s total enrollment for 2024-2025 is projected to be 758.

Under state law, parents have from Feb. 5 to 4 p.m. on April 30 to apply for open enrollment in the 2024-2025 school year, with districts obligated to inform parents by June 7 whether their applications have been accepted or denied.

Other business

n Paul Frantz, a CPA with Baker Tilly, presented the board with a summary of the district’s 2022-2023 audit, which showed the district ending the fiscal year with $3.7 million in unassigned fund balance. This “rainy day fund,” as Frantz called it, equals about 38 percent of the district’s annual expenditures, which is well above the 10 to 15 percent recommended by auditors. n The board approved the district’s 20242025 school year calendar, which includes a spring break during the fourth week of March 2025, which aligns with other districts in the area.

n Following a lengthy discussion centered around funding questions, the board voted to seek proposals for construction of an outdoor classroom near the MAES nature pond. Parks said the district currently has about $100,000 on hand for the project, which is estimated to cost between $250,000 and $450,000. The actual cost won’t be known until bids are received, but Parks expects it to be closer to $250,000.

Parks said he will continue reaching out to area groups for donations, but the board can always decide not to proceed with construction of the classroom.

n The board approved a motion to hire Connor Ellenbecker, MAES/MVA associate principal, to oversee the district’s 2024 summer school program. Ellenbecker said classes will be run as normal, three weeks in June followed by three weeks in July following the Fourth of July holiday.

n The board scheduled its next meeting for Thursday, Feb. 15, at 4:30 p.m.