For the first time in at least five years, the number of students attending Brown County schools has gone up, and so has the amount of state funding to educate them.

Fourteen more students are attending Brown County schools since count day last September, and three more since the February count. The total enrollment is now 1,881.

“We were delighted with the results,” Superintendent Laura Hammack said.

“I had concerns that we would be facing another decline as we experienced this time last year.”

She called this level of growth an “absolute win.”

“Stabilization is the rule of this data, and we are happy to be able to say that,” she said.

Thirty-one students who live in other school districts are now attending school in Brown County. Those districts are Nineveh-Hensley-Jackson, Monroe County, Brownstown Central, Bartholomew County, Franklin and Martinsville, with the most coming from Nineveh-Hensley-Jackson in Johnson County.

In February, the number of students in the district’s general education population increased, but the special education population decreased, resulting in a net loss in terms of funding. The district receives more state money in “tuition support” for special education students.

In December, 22 fewer special education students were counted than last year, resulting in $373,584 less coming to the district’s general fund than expected.

The three-student increase since February translates into about $16,500 of “new” money coming to the general fund, Hammack said.

“It is important to know that this number is our in-house ADM (count). This number has not yet been certified by the state. It could go down, but if it does, it won’t be by much,” she said.

Declining student enrollment and funding have had a visible effect on the district over the past several years.

In 2013, the district was forced to reduce expenses due to declining enrollment and state funding, and that resulted in the closure of Nashville Elementary and creation of Brown County Intermediate School.

Toward the end of last school year, Hammack announced that the general fund, which pays staff and teacher salaries, was “overspent” by nearly $1.5 million due to declining student enrollment and funding.

She presented 16 recommendations for how to bring costs down, including reducing the number of paraprofessionals in the district; replacing all five certified preschool teachers with associate-degree-level instructors and reassigning the certified teachers elsewhere in the district; and reducing overtime pay.

Those changes were made, and one part-time and 16 full-time jobs have been eliminated due to attrition, Hammack said.

The district needs 2,000 students to be financially healthy.

“We still have work to do in getting our number of team members to match the number of students that we serve,” she said.

“Our class sizes are very small, and we love that. However, there is a fine balance between classes that are simply too small to sustain in a financially responsible way.”

The goal continues to be to add 20 students back to the district every year.

“As compared with last school year at this time, we are up 14 students; that’s close,” she said.

A marketing team was launched a little over a year ago to highlight the positives about Brown County Schools: small class sizes; a strong focus on relationships; “world-class” opportunities like the national-title-winning Brown County Junior High School We the People program; and sports and arts programs that allow all students to participate.

Another success to highlight is the fact that the district received a $150,000 grant to help make sure students are ready for the workforce and secondary education, Hammack said.

“Our story is being told more and more across the state, and the fact that we are deemed ‘ready’ to align curricular and workforce needs is a huge marketing piece for us,” Hammack said.

“We have to believe that these efforts will translate into more boys and girls choosing Brown County.”

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Students on September count days by year

2012: 1,973

2013: 1,967

2014: 1,925

2015: 1,971*

2016: 1,867

2017: 1,881

*Enrollment did not increase in 2015; kindergarten students were counted as full students instead of half-students. If kindergarten students were counted as half-students, the enrollment at this time would have been 1,911.

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Brown County Schools has 31 students who are attending school here from other districts. The breakdown is as follows:

14 Nineveh-Hensley-Jackson United School Corp.

6 Brownstown Central Community School Corp.

6 Monroe County Community School Corp.

2 Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp.

2 Franklin Community School Corp.

1 Metropolitan School District of Martinsville

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