In Beavercreek, for example, Ohio Department of Education and Workforce data shows the district with a tiny enrollment rise over nine years, from 7,610 students in the 2014-2015 school year to 7,665 students in 2023-2024.
But Beavercreek City Schools officials say the number of students in their school buildings daily during spring 2024 was 7,535 – a difference of 130 students from the state’s number.
What’s the difference? Beavercreek had 207 students who learned full-time at the Career Center. They are counted as just career center students by the Beavercreek district.
The state counts the students who are enrolled through the GCCC on-campus at Beavercreek partially as GCCC students and partially as Beavercreek students for state funding purposes.
Approximately 237 students had one class period of GCCC satellite programming at BHS, and about 69 had five class periods of GCCC work study satellite program at BHC. The 237 students received a reduction of about 14%, while the 69 students reduced Beavercreek’s full-time equivalent calculation by 70%.
Those two calculations equal a reduction of about 81 students from 1,514 students who were enrolled in Beavercreek High School.
Lacey Snoke, spokeswoman for the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce said students who attend a career center part-time, including those who take satellite career-technical education programs in the high school, would have the hours the state uses to calculate state funding split between the home district and the joint vocational school district.
Full-time equivalents, or FTEs, are a part of the formula the state uses to determine enrollment, and how much money the individual districts get.
“The FTE reduction for the home district would be proportional to the time the student is in the career-technical education courses provided by the joint vocational school district,” Snoke said.
Beavercreek has been increasing the number of career tech options offered to students in-house, which has also contributed to the discrepancy. The state has incentivized students to go through these pathways and offers students credentials they can take with them out of high school. Students also say they like the ability to learn hands-on and see a direct path to their future career.
Some career tech options open to Beavercreek students inside the high school include an information and cyber security track and a teaching track, which are run by Beavercreek High School. GCCC has three branch programs at Beavercreek High School: construction technology, biomedical technologies and an engineering pathway.
These enrollment numbers are important to growing districts like Beavercreek and Centerville. Both districts are among the largest in the region but are not landlocked as some other large districts are, like Kettering.
Beavercreek is expecting several new housing developments, including a 117-home subdivision near where Beavercreek is proposing to build a new high school. Other developments are planned throughout the city and township.
Beavercreek schools contracted with Cropper GIS to calculate enrollment projections. Cropper GIS projected the district would enroll 8,827 students by 2033-2034, but suggested the district plan to have 9,268 students, or a 5% buffer. Schools generally prefer to have some unused space than too little space.
“We have found the projections to be highly accurate,” said Beth Sizemore, the district’s grant writer, communications coordinator and curriculum supervisor, of past projections the district has done.
She said the company that completed the study says they estimate it to be accurate within 2% for the life of the forecast.
Beavercreek put a 4.9 mill, $265 million levy on the ballot this spring to build a new high school and renovate other buildings. The levy would cost a property owner $172 per $100,000.
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