Sullivan County Schools looking for students after 540 drop in enrollment

BLOUNTVILLE — Sullivan County's school system is actively recruiting students after an enrollment drop of 540 during the school year that's drawing to a close.The enrollment decline comes from a recent state report on average daily attendance for the 2021-22 school year. The decline is significant because average daily attendance is used to calculate state funding, as well as each local school system's share of split revenue, such as county property taxes and sales taxes.County officials first publicly discussed the figures on Friday.A chart distributed to members of the Sullivan County Financial Management Committee indicated the school system had the weighted full-time equivalency average daily attendance of 9,755 this school year, compared to 10,295 last school year (2020-21).Kingsport City Schools' WFTE-ADA dropped by only eight students this year, while Bristol Tennessee City Schools gained 47 and Johnson City Schools gained 12.The county system's loss equals 1.42%, which translates to a decrease of about $500,000 for the system's current budget from the ADA-based split of sales tax revenues.However, the system won't be left with a shortfall because its share of that revenue stream is running an estimated $2.48 million more than budgeted for the year.As for the coming budget year, which begins July 1 and will cover the school system's finances through the 2022-23 school year, county Finance Director Larry Bailey presented the committee with local revenue estimates for the school system.The estimates, which are given to the county school board to use in development of the system's budget request, are for the school system to receive the same amount of local revenue as in the current budget: $35,659,718.Based on no change in the county's property tax rate ($2.4062 per $100 of assessed value), and the drop in its ADA, the school system is estimated to see a decrease of $462,443 in funding from county property tax revenues (from $21,669,144 to $21,206,701). That loss is balanced by an increase in the system's budgeted revenue from sales tax revenues (from $12,840,574 in this year's budget to $13,303,017 in the upcoming budget).Director of Schools Evelyn Rafalowski, a member of the Financial Management Committee, said the school board will likely have a called meeting to expedite completion of its budget request. Rafalowski said the system received the WFTE-ADA numbers from the state on May 5. The board and system staff have been working on the budget, Rafalowski said, but with no revenue numbers up until this point, had been concentrating on the expenditure side.Other committee members asked Rafalowski if the system had any explanation for the loss of 540 students.Rafalowski said the system has been aware that 390 students inside the county school district are pursuing education at home, either through home-schooling or via online programs not affiliated with Sullivan County Schools.Rafalowski said the system has written letters to each of those households attempting to get students to return to county schools. Rafalowski said the system also is promoting and marketing itself, specifically through advertisements on billboards.Keeping the current county property tax rate and factoring in the adjustments in ADA:• County property taxes, at a 95.5% on-time collection rate, will generate nearly $49.12 for school systems in the county.• The county system, with about 43.18% of the ADA split, will receive $21.2 million.• Kingsport City Schools, with about 36.16% of the ADA split, will receive about $17.76 million.• Bristol Tennessee City Schools, with about 20.24% of the ADA split, will receive nearly $9.94 million.• Johnson City Schools, with less than .5% percent of the ADA split, will receive $200,000.City school systems share in county property tax revenues because city property owners pay county property taxes.