Onalaska school board discusses limiting open enrollment

Over the last few years, Onalaska’s school district has taken in about 300 net students from other districts via open enrollment.

At Monday night’s meeting, the school board discussed restricting open enrollment if it skews the student-teacher ratio, which is allowed under state law.

“We can restrict any grade or any special needs program,” Onalaska superintendent Fran Finco said. “The purpose of doing that is to make sure we don’t have to add staff in order to accomodate open-enrollment needs.”

Finco added that it’s most difficult to accommodate at the middle school

“The middle school, where elementary schools come together, this year we have 32 kids per class at (at sixth and eighth) grade, even with restrictions,” Finco said, noting all those students fill into just one building.

The district has had restrictions in place the past two years but Finco says they still need those types of kids to come.

“We have about 160-170 leave us but ever year there’s a net increase,” he said. “As a matter of fact, we’d be a declining enrollment district if we just counted on residents.”