It’s not quite the 240 students projected last month, but the Tomah School District still has a very large kindergarten class.

Superintendent Bob Fasbender said 235 kindergarten students were enrolled as of 11 a.m. Thursday. He presented the numbers to the Tomah School Board during its regular monthly meeting Thursday at the Robert Kupper Learning Center.

Fasbender released the figures one day before the official third Friday in September count. That is the count used by the Department of Public Instruction to calculate state aid payments.

“The numbers affect our budgeting and our state aid,” Fasbender said.

If there are no changes, the 2009-10 kindergarten enrollment will beat the previous record of 234 set in 1995-96. The 2008-09 kindergarten enrollment was 195.

The slight drop still leaves nine of the district’s 11 kindergarten sections over the recommended cap of 20 students. Four sections have 23 students.

Total enrollment in the district is 3,151, including 143 4-year-old kindergarten students. Tomah is offering the 4-year-old program for the first time this fall. Excluding 4-year-old kindergarten, total enrollment is up by 23 students.

In other business, the district won’t take a one-time loan to fund its short-term borrowing needs for 2009-10. Business Manager Greg Gaarder said the spread between the loan’s interest rate and investment income doesn’t justify the one-time borrowing. In the past, the district has earned up to $16,000 on the spread.

“Everybody I’ve talked to in the banking business has told us to borrow as little as possible for the shortest period of time,” Gaarder said.

Districts are required to borrow over the short term to cover lagging state aid payments. Tomah is likely to borrow through local banks this year.

The board also:

*Accepted over $16,000 in gifts from a wide array of donors. The largest gift was $3,500 from the Tomah Wal-Mart Distribution Center to purchase a SMART Board/LCD projector at Tomah Middle School. The second largest was $2,500 from Lorraine Strozewski to purchase equipment for the baseball program.

“I’ve never seen a list like this before,” Fasbender said. “You talk about a community that gets behind us and helps students ... I’m not aware of another community that receives donations like this.”

nAuthorized fund raising for a Tomah High School Show Choir trip to New Orleans. The trip is April 23-27 and would require show members to miss two school days. The cost of the trip is $410 per person.

nContinued the school district’s recognition of the Wisconsin Interscholastic Horsemanship program for grades 6-12.

nReviewed proposed changes to 26 school district policies. Policy changes must be considered at two separate board meetings, and the policies will be considered for final approval at the Oct. 15 meeting.