East Allegheny School District - Enrollment and Consolidation

Enrollment and Consolidation

According to the Pennsylvania Department of Education, there are 1888 students enrolled in K-12 in 2009. There were 161 students in the Class of 2009. The Class of 2016 is project to be 138. Enrollment in the East Allegheny School District is projected to continue to decline to 1793 in 2015. East Allegheny School District administrative costs per pupil in 2008 was $804.26 per pupil. This ranked 193rd among the 500 school districts in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The lowest administrative cost per pupil in Pennsylvania was $398 per pupil.

In 2009, a proposal was made by a local advocate, David Wassel, to consolidate Allegheny County school districts to save tax dollars and improve student services. The proposal was that East Allegheny School District and Gateway School District join with Penn-Trafford School District.

A Standard and Poors study found that an optimal school district size, to conserve administrative costs, was 3000 pupils. Consolidation of the administration with an adjacent school district would achieve substantial administrative cost savings for people in the schools' communities. According to a proposal made in 2009 by Governor Edward G Rendell, the excessive administrative overhead dollars could be redirected to improve lagging academic achievement, to enrich the academic programs or to substantially reduce property taxes. Consolidation of the central administrations into one would not require the closing of any local schools.

In March 2011, the Pennsylvania Institute of Certified Public Accountants Fiscal Responsibility Task Force released a report which found that consolidating school district administrations with one neighboring district, would save the Commonwealth $1.2 billion dollars without forcing the consolidation of any school buildings. The study noted that while the best school districts spent 4% of the annual budget on administration, others spend over 15% on administration.

More than 40 percent of elementary schools and more than 60 percent of secondary schools in western Pennsylvania are projected to experience significant enrollment decreases (15 percent or greater).

Pennsylvania has one of the highest numbers of school districts in the nation. In Pennsylvania, 80% of the school districts serve student populations under 5,000, and 40% serve less than 2,000. This results in excessive school administration bureaucracy and not enough course diversity. In a survey of 88 superintendents of small districts, 42% of the 49 respondents stated that they thought consolidation would save money without closing any schools.