MADISON COUNTY — The number of students in the South Madison Community School Corp. slipped by more than 100 this year, but the district anticipated that drop and has prepared for it and the financial hit it brings, district leaders said.

The Indiana Department of Education collects an average daily membership (ADM) of students in the fall and in the spring.

This year’s fall count date was Friday, Sept. 14. It’s especially important because this is the only ADM count figure used to determine certain funding for the 2018-19 school year.

Schools on average receive about $5,300 in base funding for each student from the state each year. More students means more money, while fewer students means less.

Preliminary count numbers show 4,365 students enrolled in classes this fall, 101 lower than last year, when 4,466 students attended South Madison schools.

If the numbers hold, the district could be looking at losing at least $535,000 in state funding.

“The drop in our ADM is something that we anticipated and have planned for,” Superintendent Joe Buck said.

The district experienced a drop in enrollment the past three years. Its upper grade level numbers are higher than elementary numbers.

More students are graduating than are entering the next year in kindergarten. There were 373 students in last year’s senior class, and this year’s kindergarten class has 308 students.

“That has been the case for the last three years,” Buck said. “We also had 28 students at the high school that have decided to take online courses through the Indiana Virtual Academy.”

Pendleton Heights High School showed the largest drop of students with 1,454 in 2017 but 1,390 this fall, a decrease of 64. Pendleton Heights Middle School went from 683 students in 2017 to 689 in 2018.

East Elementary dropped by 26 from year to year, registering 753 in 2018. Pendleton Elementary had 833 students in 2017 and 822 in 2018.

Maple Ridge Elementary, was the only school in the district to show an increase in students. It has gone from 711 in 2017 to 717 in 2018.

School corporations will have time to iron out any student count conflicts that might exist with other school corporations before they sign off on the figures with the IDOE later this year.

At Frankton-Lapel Community Schools, officials reported 3,030 students attending on the official ADM count day compared to last year’s ADM fall count with 3,033 students.

The loss of three students will equate to an estimated decrease of $19,000 for the district.

District count numbers broke down with Lapel Middle School having 330 students compared to 347 last year, a 17 student drop off. Lapel High School showed an increase with 470 students this year compared to 462 last year.

Some of the other district numbers show Frankton Elementary School went from 855 last year to 825 this year, while Frankton Junior High School experienced a jump from 722 to 760.

While every school in the state receives about $5,352 for each student as the foundation amount, on top of that, other factors are considered to provide each district with additional dollars such as; honors diplomas, special education, career and technical education, and complexity (poverty), Superintendent Bobby Fields said.

These additional factors are what makes each district’s dollars per student different. The two biggest of these factors are the special education grant and the complexity grant.

“Our total grant per student will figure out to be about $6,390 per student,” Fields said.