New Centralized Office to Simplify School Enrollment in District 203

In the past, a parent looking to enroll children in multiple grade levels in would have to visit each school to do so.

That will change Aug. 1, when District 203 opens a Centralized Enrollment Office.

“Parents can come to one office to enroll all of their children,” Kitty Ryan, assistant superintendent of school services and programs, told the District 203 School Board Monday night. “And then they will need to go on to register at their specific schools. Enrollment is a process that happens only once in the career of a student; registration happens every year.”

While enrollment previously took place in 22 different buildings, the Centralized Enrollment Office will provide a consistent enrollment process, said Nancy Voise, principal of and chair of the district’s enrollment committee.

The new office will help families who speak limited or no English with the enrollment process, and also help eliminate confusion for students with multiple residences, she said.

“We’d make sure students are in the right place from day one,” Voise said.

Parents enrolling multiple children would only have to present the necessary documents once, such as proof of residency, instead of making trips to different buildings.

The centralized office will improve the quality of census data and reduce the risk of non-resident enrollment in the district, officials say.

“We will be able to track leases as they expire, and contact parents and ask them to please bring that new lease in so we know that they actually still do live in our district,” Ryan said.

The office will also reduce the risk of not identifying students who would qualify for special education services.

“Now if we have a systematic approach we can better ensure that these students get the services at the buildings that they need right from the get-go,” Voise said.

Starting Aug. 1, the new Centralized Enrollment Office will be in the district’s Administration Center, 203 W. Hillside Road. It will be open daily from 7:30 am. to 4 p.m., and by appointment Tuesday mornings starting at 6:30 a.m. and Wednesday evenings until 7 p.m.

The office will be staff by 1 1/2 full-time employees, with at least one speaking Spanish, administrators said. The total cost for the office staff and equipment is between $70,000 an $75,000, said Dave Zager, chief financial officer for the district.

The district plans to evaluate the efficiency and effectiveness of the enrollment office by asking parents and guardians to complete a survey after they complete enrollment. Principals and school staff will be surveyed in September, February and June.

“We want to make sure this is valuable to our parents and we want to make sure this is valuable to principals and school staff,” Ryan said.

In other news, Zager updated the board on the amount of funding expected from the state for next year’s budget.

Based on the state budget approved by the General Assembly May 30, Zager said the district likely will receive less state funding than what was anticipated in Gov. Pat Quinn’s proposed state budget.

“I would estimate that we would probably see a $306,000 reduction in our state funding,” Zager said. “I wouldn’t recommend that we change any of our plans for next year but it’s certainly something to take into consideration for our financial projection.”

That reduction includes $225,345 in cuts to general state aid, a $21,000 reduction in early childhood funding and the elimination of $60,000 in mentoring grant funds.

The mentoring program matches new teachers with experienced teachers to help teach them the ropes for the first two years. Because the state grant only provided a portion of the funding for the mentoring program, it should not be affected, Zager said.

The anticipated decrease in state funding will not affect the district’s proposed 2011-2012 budget, Zager said.

“Since our budget wasn’t so tight that we were depending on that 100 percent, we’re OK for this year,” he said.

Proposed for next year is a balanced, $224 million operating budget. Construction costs are $13.2 million and the district’s debt service is $3.6 million.

A public hearing on the budget will be held June 20. During the regular board meeting later that evening, the board will vote on the budget.