An essential ingredient in long-range or strategic planning for a school district is accurate information pertaining to its past history, current status, and its future direction. This information is particularly important when a school district is faced with educational facility concerns. The Data and Information Subcommittee was chartered to review and validate existing demographic data as well as to obtain additional data needed to address current issues facing the school district.

The Beavercreek community has had a rich heritage of supporting public education while demanding excellence not only of its students, but of the staff and administration as well. Even during the Great Depression, the citizens of this community recognized the need for quality schools by approving and funding the construction of one of the first comprehensive school buildings in the state. Figure 1 provides a time line showing the relationship between district enrollment, major school construction projects and issuance of state mandated programs since 1950. You can see that the Beavercreek schools had a population explosion during the 50's and 60's. ' The district grew from approximately 1,000 students in 1950 to a peak of 8,662 students in 1973. That peak was the crest of the "baby boom". For the next 15 years the enrollment steadily decreased, reaching a low in 1988 of 6,405 students. Since then there has been a gradual but steady increase to our current enrollment. About three years into the upswing, the first modular classrooms were leased. The continuation of the student population curve, shown by the dotted line, represents our projected enrollment of 7,353 students by the year 2004.

Why then are we, when the student enrollment is down by almost 2,000 students, faced with modular classrooms and a need to seriously consider major upgrades? The answer lies in an understanding of the impact that state imposed mandates, population growth and changes in curriculum have on facility requirements. We believe the development of this informational package will help facilitate consensus building within the community as to the future direction of Beavercreek schools.

Background

The Beavercreek Local School District is one of the four local districts in Greene County. The district boundaries include all except small portions of the City of Beavercreek and the Township of Beavercreek and small portions of nearby jurisdictions. The area of the district is 52 square miles—approximately 11 percent of the total county.

The educational facilities of the district include five elementary schools of which one, Main Elementary, consists of two separate buildings. The secondary schools are made up of two junior high school buildings and a high school building. All buildings except for Ferguson Junior High School are supplemented with leased modular classroom units.

Table 1 shows the current utilization and number of modular units used by Beavercreek Schools.

Since 1991 Beavercreek schools have had to add a total of 37 classrooms housed in 20 modular units. In 1973 when the district reached its maximum enrollment of 8,500 students (excluding 162 students attending GCCC), the district's schools had available 171 elementary classrooms, 79 junior high classrooms, and 75 high school classrooms for a total of 325 classrooms. Also at this time, the student/teacher ratio was 27.76:1. Starting in 1967, numerous state and federal mandates have required school districts to support a variety of additional education programs as listed in Table 2. As an example, at Ankeney Junior High School, one classroom is used as a computer lab and five classrooms are used full time for special education. Ankeney's enrollment now includes multi-handicapped, developmentally handicapped and an expanded population of learning disabled students. All of these diverse needs must be housed in regular size classrooms. As shown, Ohio 170 also mandated a 25:1 student/teacher ratio across the school district. This reduction in ratio resulted in the need for 10% more classrooms. Therefore, since 1967, 97 classrooms have been reallocated due to federal and state mandates. This represents 30% fewer classrooms available for regular instruction.

In addition to mandated programs, Beavercreek schools now offer a number of other courses to meet student needs. A major portion of classroom space at the high school is required to provide necessary courses for the more than 80% of our students who go on for higher education. In addition to the state required core courses (shown in Appendix 4) needed for graduation, college-bound students need facilities for languages, computer courses, advanced science, math and fine arts.

Projected Enrollment

As of November, 1994, the City of Beavercreek Planning Department indicated that, along with significant commercial development centered around the Mall at Fairfield Commons, there were 20 approved active residential developments in the city with lots for 890 single family houses, 18 duplexes, and 20 condominiums available. Developments for residential units are also in various stages of development in Beavercreek Township. One major development is the projected Nutter development, Stonehill Village comprising 1,395 single family houses and 590 multi family units. These projects indicate that there is considerable additional residential development forthcoming in the Beavercreek school district with likely increases in school enrollment. The number of school-age children and youth likely to reside in a district in the next five to ten years and enroll in the public schools is an important aspect of information needed when considering the numerical adequacy of a school district's physical facilities. There are many factors which can influence the potential future enrollments in the Beavercreek school district. These include the characteristics of the community as an attractive environment in which to live and rear a family, the availability of suitable housing, the general interest of the community in the schools and the value they place on education, potential increases in non-public schools, career center, and home-study enrollments, and the quality of the district's educational facilities.

An additional factor which could influence each of the factors enumerated above as well as others is the perceived state of the economy. Some of these influences could be immediate and short term and some of them could have long-term implications. Of special interest in projecting future enrollments is the number of students in grades 10 through 12 who are enrolled in programs related to the Greene County Career Center. The enrollment figures range from a high of 148 in 1984-85 to a low of 54 in 1991-92. Since that year, enrollment has increased to the low 80s. The amount of time these students are involved at the Career Center tends to vary with the program being pursued, although most are enrolled full time at the center. Those who are part time at the center are enrolled in Beavercreek High School each day for selected courses. Some of these students participate in activities after school at the high school. The number of students who have attended and are currently attending non-public schools in the Beavercreek area has varied from a low of 921 in 1989-90 to a high of 1,224 this year. During the last seven years, the number of students involved in Home Study programs has increased from 6 to 87.

Future enrollment predictions are based upon several predictable data flows from past to present to future.* The committee did consider such factors as rate of new homes being built, occupancy rates, single family vs multi family permits, projected interest rates, community population growth, home schooling and non-public school enrollment trends, and number of children per household when developing their projections. Figure 2 reflects the projected growth within the Beavercreek school district from 1994 to 2004.** The projection reflects a very moderate growth of less than 1 % per year over the next ten years, which is similar to the growth rate experienced over the past five years. Table 3 shows the impact this growth rate will have on our district's elementary, junior high , and high school facilities.

Operating Capacity

Knowing the effective operating capacities-of the district's school buildings is important when assessing the educational adequacies of a district's facilities. There are many techniques which can be used to measure capacity. One technique bases capacity solely on the product of the number of rooms and the potential capacity of the rooms with a utilization factor to accommodate scheduling problems. It is not possible to operate a school, especially at the high school level, with the assumption that all the rooms will be available all the time for instruction. Classrooms must be made available to teachers for planning purposes, conferences, and student/teacher meetings.

With appropriate programming, it is possible to make selective adjustments in classroom utilization. However, it would not be very satisfactory to use a social studies classroom for a chemistry laboratory. Hence, there are limitations to the degree to which such adjustments may be made without resulting in the use of teaching stations which are not appropriate for the attempted supplementary use. A programmatic factor was introduced, different for elementary, junior, and senior high schools, to address this need for flexibility.

Many changes have also taken place in education recently which have had considerable impact upon building capacity. As discussed earlier, there have been significant increases in the numbers of students who have been identified with special needs which must be addressed. These students are usually involved in relatively small classes or tutoring situations. But these students are also included in regular classes. Currently approximately 600 students - nearly 10% of the student population - require some form of special education as mandated by state and federal laws. Beavercreek schools have also had to expand the menu of courses available for the student who has a broader spectrum of needs. This has increased the number of students who are involved in honors classes, advanced-level classes, and advanced placement classes involving the equivalent of college credit. Enrollment in these classes tend to be relatively smaller than the general curriculum courses. In many communities, former students can remember when they experienced a much larger number of students in the high school, for example, than is considered the maximum capacity of the high school building with today's programs. Programs are the primary factor in influencing capacity of buildings.

Table 4 summarizes our discussion on building capacity. There are currently 345 classrooms available within the Beavercreek School District. This figure includes the 37 modular classrooms. The committee's analysis shows 248 classrooms are required at a 25:1 student/teacher ratio to house the 1994-95 general student population. This population excludes 1/2 of the kindergarten students since they meet for 1/2 day instruction, GCCC students, special education students since they are addressed later, and pre-school. Additionally 28 classrooms are required to support special education needs and 37 would be needed to replace those classrooms housed in the leased units. The number of classrooms needed to handle projected enrollment increases by the year 2004 totals 26.

Since only at the elementary level can you plan for 100% capacity in any one classroom, utilization factors of 83.3 at the high school and 85.7 at the junior highs were applied to ensure adequate classroom time for planning, conferences and student/teacher meetings. This requires an additional 30 classrooms. Finally, an additional 46 classrooms are required to provide a level of program flexibility. This is considered necessary in the analysis since many classrooms, owing to the specialized nature of the material being taught, do not achieve a 25:1 student/teacher ratio. Factors such as current student/teacher ratios, maximum average class size, and number of classrooms were considered in determining an appropriate number of classrooms needed to allow for program flexibility. Therefore, the projected shortfall within the district by the year 2004 will be approximately 70 classrooms.

While the impact of future mandates is difficult to predict, several are considered likely within the next few years. The committee suggests that planning include flexibility to address possible mandates requiring:

• All day kindergarten
• Intervention programs to ensure our students pass mandated achievement tests.
• Courses teaching English as a second language
• Additional credits in math and social studies
• Specialized CAD/CAM laboratories
• Facilities to support proficiency testing

In addition, general shortfalls in the district's infrastructure must be considered. These include insufficiencies/inadequacies in:

• Science laboratories
• Computer laboratories
• Storage space
• Cafeteria space

Since the high school continues to receive a significant amount of attention, we have attempted to show in greater detail how the facility is currently being utilized (Table 5). Of the 300 potential classroom periods (50 classrooms x 6 periods) there are only 11 open class periods daily. The numbers of students in most general classrooms are close to state mandated levels. On the other hand, rooms which support laboratories, special education classes and honors type courses show appropriately smaller student loads.

Other Areas of Interest

There are many other factors which can affect a school district's building capacity. In order to make an informed decision, it is important to understand the impacts, both positive and negative, of such factors. Of primary importance are grade realignment to a middle school concept of sixth through eighth grades and a change from a six to a seven period day at the high school. This information along with other data which the committee felt would be of interest to the community has been included in the following Appendices:

1. List of committee members
2. Middle School Concept—Pros & Cons
3. Core Curriculum
4. School District Levies since 1975
5. Grade Distribution—Middle School Concept

*It must be noted that enrollment predictions cannot include the occurrence of catastrophic events such as the downsizing or complete closure of a major area employer.

**This figure does not include those students attending or projected to attend the Greene County Career Center.

TABLE 4

CLASSROOM/LAB NEEDS

APPENDIX 2

MIDDLE SCHOOL CONCEPT - PROS & CONS
(6-8 Middle School and 9-12 High School)

• In the past ten years, no district in Ohio has chosen to go to a 10-12 high school. Currently, 97.4 percent of all high schools in the state are four year high schools. In 1969, Beavercreek changed from a four year high school to a three year solely based on overcrowding at the high school.
• Freshman gain access to the total high school curriculum. For staffing reasons, some courses cannot be offered at the junior highs.
• Seventh and eighth grade students are not on the Carnegie units of credit whereas ninth graders are. Therefore the seventh and eighth grade student schedules have little flexibility.
• Implementing a middle school concept will increase the costs associated with upgrading the current high school due to the addition of a ninth grade.
• If the district were to adopt a K-5, 6-8, and 9-12 grade structure, the focus of expansion would shift. Based on enrollment projections, a four year high school would have the greatest enrollment increase with 661 additional students. A middle school would have 119 more students and K - 5 elementaries would actually have 144 fewer students. It is up to the community to decide what grade structure is appropriate for Beavercreek given consideration to programs, capacity and cost.

APPENDIX 3

SIX versus SEVEN-PERIOD DAY

• Students on the college preparatory path find it difficult to fit in all the required courses and participate in other activities such as music, art, business courses, etc. They are also limited in taking other electives that may help them decide on a career path.
• Some students are forced to take courses in summer school just to get in the required courses and electives. Being able to participate in activities such as student council, yearbook, and newspaper penalizes students who are in tough competition for scholarships.
• Those students with disabilities who must devote a period for receiving special tutoring find it very difficult to get in all the required college preparatory courses or even electives.
• Future state requirements for even more units of science, math, and social studies will place greater strain on the current six-period day.
• The teaching staff would have to teach one more class per day and the total staff may have to be increased, thereby increasing staff costs.

APPENDIX 4

CORE CURRICULUM

ELEMENTARY
(Grades 1-6)

A comprehensive elementary "core curriculum" program is inclusive of the following:

A minimum of 1100 minutes per week: