Educators say quality of schools keeps residents in their own area

In nearly every local school district, more than 90 percent of students attend their local public school, instead of transferring to a charter or private school or to another public school district.

Local school officials say that shows that families are pleased with the services they offer, and they want their children to stay at their local schools.

The transfer data, which shows how many students transfer in and out of local school districts, was released for the first time this year by the Indiana Department of Education. The data is meant to help schools learn more about the populations they serve, according to the state department.

Across Johnson County, nearly every local school district has at least 90 percent of the children within its boundaries attending local schools.

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But that isn’t true across the state.

On average, about 87 percent of students attend the school district where they live, but those numbers vary widely. For example, 56 percent of students within the boundaries for Indianapolis Public Schools attend their local school district, while 98 percent of students in Carmel and Zionsville schools do.

The number of students who transfer out of their home school district includes children who use the Indiana Choice Scholarship program, which offers vouchers to families who meet income requirements and want to send their children to private schools, along with children who go to charter schools or transfer to another public school district.

Families should have choices and the number who choose to stay show satisfaction with local schools, Franklin Schools Superintendent David Clendening said. Nearly 92 percent of the students who live within the Franklin school district attend Franklin schools.

Greenwood schools received the highest number of transfer students coming into the school district this year, with 568 students transferring from other districts. The school district is landlocked, with little space for new development, so that is where the district’s growth has to come from, Superintendent Kent DeKoninck said.

The number of incoming transfers led school officials to decide not to accept any more students at Isom Elementary School at the beginning of the school year to keep classrooms from being overcrowded, assistant Greenwood superintendent Todd Pritchett said at the beginning of the school year.

The enrollment numbers are constantly being evaluated, and some other grade levels at schools stopped accepting transfers to make sure class sizes didn’t get too large, he said.

“We try to be as inviting as we can, but we also have to be cognizant of those issues,” Pritchett said.

A few years ago, the school board decided to accept transfer students, since key funding schools receive is based on the number of students enrolled and officials saw that the school district was not growing internally, he said.

“When we are not a growing district, that is a scary thing, because that is what state funding is based on,” he said.

Greenwood schools still had nearly 350 students transfer out, but that isn’t a surprise, especially with the nearby options for private schools, DeKoninck said.

But what they hear from families transferring into the school district is encouraging, including that they like the culture of Greenwood schools and the size, since they are smaller than other nearby districts, he said.

“What I get heartened by is the number of people who choose to transfer into our district,” DeKoninck said.

But that isn’t the same for all schools, since some have so much growth from within their school district that they don’t accept any transfers or limit the ones they do take.

At Clark-Pleasant schools, transfer students are typically not accepted at the elementary schools, which are continually growing.

And at Center Grove, transfer students are accepted only for a brief period of time, which is mainly intended to allow Center Grove teachers to transfer their kids into the district where they work, Superintendent Richard Arkanoff said. But, depending on enrollment, officials do sometimes have to turn students away, especially at the elementary schools, where space can get tight, he said. The school district recently broke ground on a new elementary school that is planned to open in 2019.

Arkanoff isn’t surprised that 651 students transferred out of Center Grove, especially with Roncalli High School and SS. Francis and Clare Catholic School nearby for students who want a religious-based education, he said.

But the number of students from within the school district who stay at Center Grove — more than 92 percent — also shows that families are happy with what Center Grove offers. The schools are also a draw for families moving into the area, he said.

“I think it does say a lot, that people are satisfied, they appreciate the quality of education here in Center Grove, and really in Johnson County as a whole,” Arkanoff said.

Officials aren’t sure yet what they will do with the new data but said they are tracking it to see what it shows for their schools.

Greenwood school officials are continuing to monitor their transfer data to be sure they are balancing their growth so their schools are not too full, DeKoninck said. This school year, they did reach capacity early at many of their grade levels, so they will continue to track that data, he said.

At Nineveh-Hensley-Jackson schools, school officials already had been tracking the number of transfers, Superintendent Tim Edsell said. This year, the district had more students transfer in than out, but the number who transfer out is always a concern, he said.

That is why officials are trying to expand their options for curriculum and course options for students, including adding more online courses for students whose families choose to home-school them, Edsell said.

But their plan is to continue to track the numbers to try to learn why students are transferring out and what their families are seeking that the school district isn’t offering, Edsell said.