ELMWOOD — The Elmwood School Board approved the 2026-27 district budget at Monday’s meeting, with Superintendent Glenn Webb sharing trends in the numbers since his arrival to the position in 2018.

When Webb arrived in the district, he said the mill rate was 14.99, which has been driven down to 6.98 as part of Monday’s approved levy. He said that is the lowest mill rate in the school’s history.

“We’ve gone from being a poor district to kind of a not wealthy district but having the value of our district be a lot more. A lot of that is just simply inflation, but when I got here our district valuation was worth $149 million, and it’s now $301 million,” Webb said. “That’s a good thing from the standpoint of our district is growing and developing. The flipside of that is, the way the finance formula is set up, the more our district is worth and the lower our enrollment of in-district kids are, the less money that we get in state aid.”

“[The mill rate is] meaningless because our property value is so high and our student enrollment is low. That’s what creates a low mill rate. We’re just getting a lesser percentage on a higher amount of value,” Webb said.

Students who live within the district have decreased to the lowest number Webb has tracked. Increases to open enrollment have actually allowed the total enrollment number to slightly increase over the recent years.

“How we get money from the state and how we set our levy, that’s based on our kids that live here. So, if that number drops, that changes our formula,” Webb said. “The good news is, right now we’re living on open enrollment.”

Webb’s originally tracked numbers in 2018 were 45 students open enrolling in and now that number is 88. Outgoing open enrollees are down to 34 from 61. The district lost out on $130,000 from open enrollment in 2018 and has increased that number to a positive number around $600,000.

“Without that number, we would be in trouble. We would be going to referendum to operate. We’d be cutting. We’d be doing lots of things. I just want to make sure, as we set our levy tonight, everyone is really aware of where we stand and how we’re there,” Webb said.

With one more open enrollee coming in during December, Webb said the 4YK class will be made up of 15 open enrollees and 15 residents.

State aid to Elmwood has decreased by about $350,000 over the last nine years, according to Webb. The levy has remained around the same level as it was at that time.

Lastly, Webb said the special education costs and requirements have increased at a rate that the state is not coming close to countering in reimbursement.

The total levy for 2026-27 school year is $2,104,000 with a mill rate of 6.98. That levy is $121,000 higher than last year, a 6.15% increase.

Middle School/High School Principal Tom Sauve said during his monthly report that the school’s attendance is at a five-year high. Sauve said the attendance goal is 97%, which the district used to hit all the time, but has not come close since COVID. This year, attendance is at 96.4% and trending upward as the weeks go by.

“Attendance has been something that I’ve really been trying to work on the last few years, and it’s one thing that has not improved since COVID. I’ve been talking to kids a lot about attendance, you need to be here. I’m actually happy to say it seems to finally be taking hold in the right way,” Sauve said.