PERRYSBURG — Superintendent Tom Hosler on Tuesday delivered what school officials consider a “somber” assessment of the schools’ space needs.
Already nearing capacity at five of the district’s six schools, district officials must also consider how to meet new mandates being handed down from the state as part of Gov. Ted Strickland’s education initiative.
And, there are two more apartment complexes being constructed within the district.
In the past decade, Hosler said, since the district opened the new high school and expanded Toth Elementary, enrollment in the district has grown from 4,290 to 4,686, or 9 percent. “For the last decade there hasn’t been anything done specifically to address growth,” he said.
The district did seek funding in 2006 to add a sixth-grade wing onto the junior high, but that issue failed at the polls.
Enrollment jumped 2.4 percent this year with 221 new students attending. Hosler said about a third of those students had transferred from private, religious or charter schools. He attributed that to a weak economy, and said he doesn’t believe the district’s rolls will continue to expand at that rate. “This enrollment growth will not be sustainable.”
The district’s historic growth rate of about 1 percent is more likely.
But one resident, Chris Vogel, who does volunteer statistical and demographic studies for the district, questioned whether that figure could be depended on. That figure is “suspect,” he said, given the school district’s growing “desirability for multifamily apartment complexes.”
The developments under way could add as many as 100 students to the district’s rolls.
The demands on space will get worse as new state mandates take force.
All districts must have all-day kindergarten by next September, though waivers may be available. Districts, such as Perrysburg, which already offer all-day kindergarten for a fee, can continue to do so through next school year. Hosler said the district will seek a waiver to continue offering the program it has through next year, but would need to offer all-day kindergarten, by the beginning of school in 2011.
At this point, that would require the district to have five additional classrooms, five more classroom teachers and possibly another special needs teacher as well as a plan to accommodate children whose parents want them only to attend half day. Hosler said based on the experience of other districts, that should not be many students at all.
Hosler noted the cost of all-day kindergarten, now covered by fees paid by parents, is $268,000 for 122 students. The district has a total of 347 kindergarten students.
The increased state funding would fall about $8,000 short of covering the loss of revenues now generated by the fees, Hosler said.
Also, the state is requiring smaller class sizes for grades kindergarten through 3 over the next six years, going from a 19-to-1 student teacher ratio next year to a 15-to-1 ratio in 2013.
Districts that have earned an “excellent” rating from the state as Perrysburg has for the past nine years are expected to be exempt from those requirements. But Hosler cautioned that the provision in the state rating system that requires districts to show annual yearly progress for all students, including a number of ethnic, gender and economic subgroups, could threaten the district’s rating. The district has launched a number of curriculum initiatives to make sure it maintains annual yearly progress.
Other districts who fare as well or in some ways better than Perrysburg have dropped two ratings to continuous improvement because of the subgroup requirements.
With tougher economic times and shifting demographics in the district, Perrysburg has to account for more of those subgroups, board President Val Hovland noted.
If the district were to lose its excellent ranking, it would face adding 14 classrooms and teachers the first year and as many as 35 rooms and teachers within six years, Hosler said. That’s the equivalent of two new elementary schools.
In the meantime, the state has cut funding 1 percent for this year, and 2 percent for next year. “That’s how they’re helping us,” Hosler said.
Hosler said the board needs to come up with a plan by February to address the immediate need of all-day kindergarten and where to find room for pre-school classes now in elementary schools.
Hosler recommended forming a task force to address the long-term growth needs of the district.

Photo caption:  Toth Elementary School in Perrysburg. (J.D. Pooley/Sentinel-Tribune)

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