About 200 Brown County students are still attending school somewhere outside of their home district.
But the good news is that no more of them are choosing that option since last year’s transfer report was released in the spring.
There are 2,048 registered students living in Brown County. Of those, 1,848 attend Brown County schools, according to the spring 2017-2018 Public Corporation Transfer Report released in October by the Indiana Department of Education.
Home-schooled students are not necessarily included in the report because they don’t have to report to a state agency.
The transfer report says that 200 students who live in Brown County attend classes outside the Brown County Schools corporation. Of those 200, 146 attend a traditional public school due to parental choice, the report states.
Nineveh-Hensley-Jackson United School District (Indian Creek) gets 94 of those students. Bartholomew Consolidated School Corporation has 29 of them.
A total of five students attend a different traditional public school for reasons other than parental choice, like placement in foster care. NHJ has two public transfer students for “other” reasons and Bartholomew Consolidated has one, the report said.
Compared to the 2017-2018 fall report, the number of Brown County students attending NHJ due to parental choice or by another placement has not changed.
“I think one of the key takeaways was that we feel like the data has stabilized. There was not a drastic shift up or down. We feel like we’re holding steady,” Superintendent Laura Hammack said.
“… We really do believe — and again, this is through anecdotal conversation — that we are losing the number of students we’re losing to NHJ because of ease and closeness in where we’re living and where that school is located.”
The state pays a school district “tuition support” for each student it educates. That money goes into a district’s general fund, which pays the salaries of teachers and staff. A couple years ago, Brown County Schools cut nearly $1 million from that budget due to declining enrollment.
Brown County Schools currently receives around $5,300 per student as of September 2018. If those 200 would come to Brown County Schools, the district could have received another $1,060,000.
In addition to driving ease, athletics play another role in students leaving the district, Hammack said.
She said she and Bartholomew Consolidated Superintendent Jim Roberts have an agreement where he shares a list of Brown County students in his district and vice versa.
“It’s really fair to notice that we have a lot who are attending (Bartholomew County) because of athletics,” she said.
“We know that’s a piece of this puzzle. We know that is not just Bartholomew County. That is a situation.”
Hammack said bigger school corporations may provide opportunities for student athletes to “play on a scale that is one that might be more noticed by colleges and universities” than in a small school like Brown County.
“There’s just no doubt that some athletic programs recruit to build their capacity of their team. When you are a family in Brown County and you’re being pursued by an athletic program that really wants you, it’s hard when you’re 14 or 15 to turn that down,” she said.
Hammack witnessed another school district come watch and recruit players on Brown County Junior High School’s winning eighth-grade volleyball team in the junior high’s own gymnasium.
“I think that’s what the hurt most. I understand it’s going to happen, but where I wish it was different if you’re going to recruit and watch our kids, do it in your own gym. It’s just a little offensive,” she said.
“I think it’s something, respectfully, we would never engage in, but is unfortunate that it does happen.”
One solution to losing students is building relationships with other superintendents, Hammack said.
”When you look at districts, we’re all in it for the right thing. … Because of the funding structure which is handed down to all of us, we are put in a position where every student is a value to your bottom line, and so efforts to increase your bottom line, it translates,” she said.
Allowing students to transfer to other public school districts without paying tuition was allowed under a tuition transfer law which state legislature passed a few years ago. Hammack said that allowed for larger programs to pull students away from smaller, rural districts to boost their athletic programs.
“You go to ‘Hoosiers’ (the classic movie) on this one. It’s the breakdown of your small communities, of having that state champion that rises from the ashes of being the small, little school. It is a shame,” she said.
“Even with this happening, I’d put our cross-country teams up against any team in this state. Track and field, volleyball, we are competing at a level that I think is one that should be applauded, considering we get students plucked away from what could be a full program. People are paying attention.”
Of the 200 students attending school outside of Brown County, 24 attend a public charter school online.
The goal for next school year is for Brown County Schools to offer online schooling in order to capture some of those students and get tuition support from the state for them, Hammack said.
Director of Technology David Phelps is leading that initiative.
“Our target is for next school year for sure. I expect that will happen,” Hammack said.
If those 24 students decided to take online courses through Brown County Schools instead of through another group like the Indiana Connections Academy, that would equal about $127,000 in additional revenue in the district’s general fund.
Currently, 14 of those 24 students receive online schooling through the Indiana Connections Academy, according to the report.
The report states that 25 of the 200 students attending school outside of Brown County attend non-public schools through the Indiana Choice Scholarship program. Of those, 11 students attend Tabernacle Christian School in Martinsville.
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94 students attend Nineveh-Hensley-Jackson United School District
29 students attend Bartholomew Consolidated School Corporation
9 students attend Monroe County Community School Corporation
5 students attend Franklin Community School Corporation
4 students attend Greenwood Community School Corporation
1 student attends Center Grove Community School Corporation
2 students attend Flat Rock-Hawcreek School Corporation
1 student attends Clark-Pleasant Community School Corporation
1 student attends Southwestern Consolidated School District of Shelby County
4 students attend school in either Indianapolis Public Schools, Richmond Community Schools or Nineveh-Hensley-Jackson United School District due to a state mandate or foster placement
The following number of students attend charter schools instead of Brown County Schools:
14 students attend Indiana Connections Academy (online)
3 students attend Indiana Virtual School (online)
3 students attend Hoosier Academy Virtual Charter School (online)
1 student attends Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy (online)
1 student attends Hoosier Academy in Indianapolis
2 students attend Insight School of Indiana (online)
The following number of students are using Choice scholarships to attend private, faith-based schools:
11 students attend Tabernacle Christian School
3 students attend Columbus Christian School Inc.
3 students at Saints Francis & Clare of Assisi Roman Catholic Church and School
2 students attend St. John Lutheran School
2 students attend St. Peter’s Lutheran School
2 students attend St. Bartholomew School
1 student attends Lutheran High School
1 student attends Sandy Creek Christian Academy
SOURCE: Indiana Department of Education
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