Dearest Reader,
Sometimes a rabbit hole needs no further digging. Sometimes the numbers alone are sufficient to raise an eyebrow.
In May 2022, Hemlock voters approved a $41.9 million bond. Less than a month later, the district assured the public that, save for a sinking-fund renewal in 2030, "there is nothing else in the current forecast."
Four years on, Dear Reader, Hemlock voters are being asked to consider a second bond. $17.75 million this time, with additional elementary classroom space among its stated purposes.
Naturally, this Author went looking at the enrollment.
In 2021–22, Hemlock counted 536 K–5 students. Today, it counts 608. A net gain of 72.
But here, Dear Reader, is the breadcrumb worth pausing over: over that same span, K–5 School of Choice enrollment rose from 116 to 164. A gain of 48 students. Which is to say, School of Choice accounts for two-thirds of Hemlock's entire net K–5 growth. Today, 164 of the district's 608 K–5 students, roughly 27 percent, arrived via School of Choice.
To be scrupulously fair: none of this establishes that School of Choice created the need for additional classrooms. It tells us nothing of how students are distributed among buildings, nor what other needs may exist.
But it does raise two entirely reasonable questions.
What, precisely, changed between June 2022, when the district saw "nothing else in the current forecast", and today's request for a second bond?
And how much of the additional capacity Hemlock now seeks reflects growth among its own resident students, versus its continued acceptance of School of Choice enrollment?
Hemlock's 2024 Master Site Plan only sharpens the question. The district named expansion for "some future growth" as a significant component, while acknowledging that portions of that plan went unaddressed by the 2022 bond.
This Author does not have every answer.
She need not.
The receipts tell us what happened. The questions are simply what come next.
With receipts and respect,
Lady Budgetdown
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