“We were losing students, and we wanted to make sure that we maintained the number of teachers and the capacities of our campuses were met,” Dr. David Vinson said.
CROWLEY, Texas — Open enrollment is a new concept for some North Texas school districts, while others, like Crowley ISD, have been familiar with the practice for years.
School districts are now competing to fill their classrooms with students using the same practice.
In Wylie ISD, some schools have reached capacity, a milestone attributed to the district’s adoption of open enrollment in 2011.
“Open enrollment is the opportunity for you to allow someone to come into your school district, and someone gets the average daily attendance for that person,” said Dr. David Vinson, Superintendent of Wylie ISD.
Higher average daily attendance directly translates to increased funding from the state, a crucial factor for school districts. To compete for students, more North Texas districts are introducing open enrollment programs, following in the footsteps of districts like Wylie ISD.
Dr. Vinson shared why they started it then and again about two years ago.
“Because we were losing students, and we wanted to make sure that we maintained the number of teachers and the capacities of our campuses were met,” Vinson explained.
Recently, McKinney, Frisco, and Castleberry ISD announced the launch of their open enrollment programs. These programs often include specific requirements, such as a 90% attendance record the previous school year, satisfactory grades, and no history of expulsions. Some of the open enrollment programs come with application deadlines too.
“We’re going to push that out as much as we possibly can in a positive way and hope that we don’t lose students,” Vinson said.
However, some districts are expressing concerns about the potential impact of Governor Greg Abbott’s proposed school voucher program, which is expected to pass in the current legislative session. The program would allow public school parents to use state funds to transfer their children to private schools.
In the face of these changes, Wylie ISD is focusing on highlighting its successes and past experiences to retain students.
“I think about my experience here since then we’ve raised SAT 111 points, we have from 50% to 81% of our kids going to college and not only that, our ability to get kids to the next year, being successful in college is the best in Texas,” said Vinson, “Our primary reading scores are the best, but I don’t want to wait and be behind the eight-ball. We tell that story every day because it’s just important and this is going to be an important part of the game and like it, not like it, it’s reality.”
