St. Leon, IN — After years of declining enrollment, the Sunman-Dearborn Community School Corporation has experienced a growth in enrollment for three consecutive school years.
According to Superintendent Dr. Andrew Jackson, the three-year trend of increased enrollment is significant since the enrollment forecast model looks back over the last three years to project future enrollment.
“We have watched our forecast change significantly over the past three years from declining to stabilizing, and now to a projected increase for the first time in over 15 years,” Jackson said.
With state revenue based on a per-student amount, the additional enrollment equates to additional revenue from the state.
All state revenue is deposited into the Education Fund, which primarily pays for employees’ salaries and benefits, and programming costs.
“More state revenue allows us to increase and improve programming. That, coupled with our building project and the $54 million investment the board has made in our facilities, parents, and
students are noticing and choosing to attend Sunman-Dearborn Community Schools,” Jackson said.
In addition to the overall enrollment increasing, Jackson added that Sunman-Dearborn is also seeing fewer school-age students attend other schools and more out-of-district transfers choose to go to Sunman-Dearborn.
“The number of out-of-district transfers has nearly doubled over the past several years from around 150 during the 2018-19 school year to almost 300 for the current school year,” Jackson
explained. “Parents and students are choosing Sunman-Dearborn for our academics, our extensive college-credit programs, fine arts programming, facilities, and our various service organizations like FCCLA, FFA, Student Council, and National Honors Society. Ultimately, this all points back to our Strategic Plan. The plan allows everyone in our organization to know where we are going and how we are getting there. It is a roadmap for the future of Sunman-Dearborn.”
Dr. Jackson encourages the community to follow Sunman-Dearborn at Facebook.com/SunmanDearborn.
