Projections refute overcrowding concerns

by Melissa Martin

July 17 school board meeting

The community’s concern that Brecksville-Broadview Heights Elementary School is too small continues to be unsupported, as student enrollment for the 2024-2025 school year remains in line with previous projections.

Much of the apprehension stems from a spike in kindergarten enrollment two years ago, but school board President Mark Dosen said the increase probably was a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and the excitement surrounding the opening of the new consolidated elementary school.

“There were people who were thinking that 300 was going to be the usual class size based on all the new construction taking place in the area,” Dosen said. “[They] were skeptical of those earlier predictions, but at the end of the day … the numbers look like they are leveling off more and are more in line with enrollment projections.”

Superintendent Jeff Harrison echoed Dosen’s reasoning.

“We will have those kinds of spikes from time to time,” he said. “It will happen, we will adjust, and we will continue to adjust.”

As of July 17, Harrison said 225 students are registered for the next kindergarten class. With 11 staff members and 12 sections of kindergarten offered, between full- and half-day classes, he said the average kindergarten class is expected to be 18.8 students.

He said 266 students are enrolled for first grade, including 17 students who enrolled after the last school year, when the class contained 249 students.

“You always get a bump in first grade,” Harrison said, because some parents send their children to other schools for kindergarten then come to BBHES for the remainder of elementary school.

Second grade, Harrison explained, has been dubbed the ‘bubble class,’’ because it routinely is one of the district’s largest classes, now with 289 students.

“It started last year at 290, dropped to 285 and had some students come and go,” Harrison said. “We have 12 staff members in second grade, which gives us an average class size of 24.1.”

The third-grade class is 271, Harrison said; fourth grade is 269 and fifth grade is 284.

“[Fifth grade] is another class that is larger than average, with 10 staff members and one gifted intervention specialist,” he said, noting that even at that level, there are 28.4 [students per class].

To accommodate larger classes in second and fifth grade, Harrison said second grade will use one classroom in the first-grade pod, and grade three will use a classroom outside the pod.

Because the district intends to demolish the former Hilton Elementary School, Harrison said he’s received significant pushback from the community to keep the school as a reserve. However, reopening Hilton, Harrison said, would never have been the answer to overcrowding.

“If some reason our enrollment did not steady and we had large class sizes year after year, our next move would not have been to reopen Hilton,” he said. “Our next move would have been to move the fifth grade to the middle school. … It doesn’t mean we’re moving the fifth grade to the middle school. It just means that’s the option if our enrollment got to the point where we outgrew the elementary. … It would be more fiscally responsible to move the fifth grade to the middle school than to reopen Hilton.”

2024 reappraisal

Treasurer Craig Yaniglos told the board about significant discussion on social media by local taxpayers because of the rise in assessed property values.

“People sometimes don’t understand how this is calculated, and they see their property values increasing by $100,000 and they feel like that is going to generate a massive tax increase,” he said. “While some people’s tax bills are going to go up, and some of that will be caused by the schools, it is a very minimal amount.”

In May, Yaniglos said the district planned for property tax growth of approximately 18.2%. However, according to the county auditor, home values increased an average of 22% in Brecksville and 27% in Broadview Heights. As a result, the district is planning for a 24.7% increase in property tax values.

Yaniglos said the reappraisal will increase district property tax revenues by approximately 2%.

“That is the bottom line for us,” he said. “I wanted to get that information out that so that people understand that whatever your tax situation is in the community, the school district is not receiving the bulk of this, of whatever that increase is.”

The new assessments, Yaniglos said, will affect property owners’ tax bills beginning in January 2025. ∞