As more and more Ely High School students take advantage of the post-secondary enrollment option program, the financial impact to the school district has gone from troublesome to devastating.
According to figures presented at Monday’s school board study session, the Ely district will lose about $330,000 in revenue this year because of the program, which allows juniors and seniors to take courses for both college and high school credit at Vermilion Community College.
Currently, 38 juniors and seniors participate in PSEO. Next year, the impact figures to be even more severe, with a preliminary survey showing that 51 students will take PSEO courses in 202627, for an estimated loss to the Ely schools of $468,000. In Ely, the district is exploring measures to combat the enrollment losses, including potential new initiatives such as online courses and more flexible scheduling.
School officials in Ely and elsewhere are also looking for help from the state, including legislation that may make it more difficult for high school students to take college courses.
“We talked at the faculty meeting about things we can control and we’re hearing that the ‘legislature should do this, or this isn’t right, or the (minimum) GPA should be higher and I agree 100 percent with all of that, and I do want them to change,” said superintendent Anne Oelke. “There’s lots of lobbying at the capital going on for that, and we know people are shouting from the rooftops, but that’s not something we can control. We’re also looking at what we can do internally.”
Substantial changes to PSEO could be a difficult sell in St. Paul, given the program allows families to get up to two years of college covered at no cost.
During a meeting with Ely school board members earlier this year, State Sen. Grant Hauschild (D-Hermantown) said he understood the plight of districts such as Ely’s but conceded that he was doubtful that there would be sweeping changes to the program.
Over the last several years, Ely has seen a vast increase in student participation in PSEO.
In 2020, only eight Ely students took part in the program.
That number has since gone up nearly five-fold, and now amounts to 42 percent of Ely’s juniors and seniors taking at least one course at Vermilion.
A survey of this year’s sophomore class, which Oelke said performs at a high academic level, shows that Ely’s PSEO dilemma will only grow in 2026-27.
The survey indicated that 78 percent of class members would likely take part in PSEO, which would bring the total number of high school participants next fall to 51, or almost 60 percent of the juniors and seniors overall.
That amounts to $468,000 and worsens the district’s financial outlook.
“This would be an additional loss,” said Oelke. “This number has just been increasing and growing and that’s our reality.”
While juniors and seniors are counted in the district’s overall enrollment, much of the state aid Ely receives for those students goes to Vermilion, if those students are in the PSEO program.
PSEO students retain other privileges of high school enrollment, including participation in district-sponsored sports and activities.
Oelke said the district is looking at the possibility of providing employment-related credits for students, and that some teachers are interested in that avenue.
Another option are courses similar to those offered at the neighboring Vermilion Country School, a charter grades 7-12 school located in Tower.
“The charter school next door is a competitor to us and they’re growing,” said Oelke. Less than half of the Tower charter school students are traditional, five days per week students, while another 45 percent have a hybrid enrollment model with a mix of in-person and online classes. The remaining 10 percent are entirely online.
“So 55 percent of their students are in some type of different platform and we’re not there yet,” said Oelke.
Oelke said the district “is dabbling” with online courses but that further online presence may be coming.
“Right now you can do online schooling for your own students in your own district, and you can go through approval to be certified as an online school, and then you can take students from other districts,” said Oelke. “Rock Ridge just got certified for that and they can essentially service anybody in the state if they want to. That’s a little alarming to me as well.”
