By Jeremy Brown

Interdistrict open enrollment at the Cuyahoga Falls City School District has been in place for decades, but it’s coming to an end starting in the 2026-2027 school year.

As part of the district’s plan to reduce its deficit, students who live outside of the district will no longer be able to attend its schools. The decision came after the state reduced the funding that schools receive for open enrollment students.

The district currently has 254 open enrolled K-12 students, with the vast majority of them living in the district for the Akron Public Schools. The only students who will be exempt from the discontinuation of open enrollment are the 15-20 current juniors; the district plans to let them attend Cuyahoga Falls High School for their senior year in 2026-2027.

Christine Stewart, the district’s coordinator of community relations, said the district is required to submit a five-year budget forecast to the state every February, along with a budget reduction plan to avoid a deficit. A district forecast issued in May 2025 showed that the school would be in a more than $2 million deficit by 2028. 

“This was a really tough and difficult decision for the Board of Education,” Stewart said. “Our deficit’s been challenging because of the changes to state funded public education and rising health care costs. We used to receive $6,020 per student from the state for open enrollment; that has been dropped to $1,800, and moving forward, it will be even less. Right now it is costing more to educate students that don’t live in the district than what we’re being reimbursed.”

Stewart said the cost of attendance for each student for the 2025-2026 school year is $13,356, and that amount doesn’t change whether they are a resident or open enrolled from outside of the district.

A fact sheet on the district's website noted that rising costs for goods and services and inflationary growth have also contributed to the fiscal challenges of the district, but Stewart cited changes in legislation and state school funding as the main reasons for budget cuts and the discontinuation of open enrollment.

Cuyahoga Falls is not alone in the decision to end open enrollment locally. The Norton City Schools also recently announced that it is cancelling its interdistrict open enrollment policy as of the 2026-2027 school year. The district also plans to reduce staffing and reorganize building funds in an effort to avoid a deficit. 

Open enrollment was the last thing on the chopping block to reduce the district’s deficit, a decision Cuyahoga Falls school board members said they didn’t want to make. 

Board of Education President Anthony Gomez said the decision to cancel open enrollment is a funding issue. 

“The funding formula for it has changed, which makes it no longer financially beneficial,” Gomez said. “With the multitude of other unfunded mandates and cuts to public education funding, not to mention the diversion of funding via universal vouchers, public schools like Cuyahoga Falls are being forced to make a multitude of painful financial decisions.”

Over the last couple of years, the district has been making spending cuts to staffing, and it even closed a school.

“Leading up to this decision, we reduced our staff, including eliminating some administration positions, and then through attrition; as teachers retire, we don’t replace them. We closed a building. Preston Elementary will be closed starting next year and will be repurposed for different uses,” Stewart said. “We'll have our preschool programming in that building. And then across all departments, there was a 10% reduction in all of our budgeting.” 

The district will redraw school boundaries to decide where Preston Elementary’s students will go. 

As for the former elementary school, it will become the district’s preschool and a credit recovery program to help students stay on track for graduation, both of which are currently located at Schnee Learning Center. The Schnee Learning Center is owned by the school and will be sold. The former Preston building will also include a school museum, which will contain memorabilia from the district’s former middle schools and high school. 

During a Cuyahoga Falls Board of Education meeting on March 4, one parent and several students voiced their grievances about the end of open enrollment.

Kyle Wentz spoke on behalf of students affected by the cancellation, including his daughter, sophomore Amelia Wentz.

“Last night, my daughter said, ‘I just want to go to online school. Starting over is too much.’ My heart broke, because it isn’t just about policy; it’s about prom, senior night, high schoolers’ normal rites of passage,” Kyle Wentz said. “This is just one example of the many, many, many students and families, identities, friendships and futures that are rooted in the district. These students have not been temporary participants. They have been fully invested members of the community, leading clubs, being top Tigers, competing in athletics, performing in band and representing the district with pride.”

Amelia Wentz is one of five open enrollment students who are members of the Cuyahoga Falls High School Swim & Dive Team who will be transferring to another district in the fall.

Swim Coach Will Turnbull said losing five team members doesn’t sound like a lot, but because the team only has 22 members, it will make a pretty big impact. 

“I just wrapped up my sixth year coaching the team and we started out with basically nothing,” Turnbull said. “My first year, we were a very small team, not a lot of great swimmers yet, and it’s just gotten better and better every year, to the point that we had our first state qualifier since me. Our boys went eight and two last year; now, with losing these kids, we’re basically back to square one. That’s going to be tough to come back from, and we will. I just feel for the kids. It’s just flat out not fair to them.”

In an interview with The Summiteer, Kyle Wentz’s wife, Nadine Wentz, said, because the school gave such short notice that open enrollment would come to an end starting in the fall, parents and students have missed the deadline to apply for open enrollment at other schools outside of the Akron school district. 

Stewart said the board waited to review the district’s updated five-year financial forecast before making any recommendations concerning open enrollment. 

“The forecast indicated a deficit if expenditures were not reduced, necessitating an evaluation of options at that time,” Stewart said. “This timeframe also aligns with when school districts begin planning staffing and when families typically make enrollment decisions for the upcoming school year. By making the recommendation now, the board aimed to provide families with as much time as possible to consider their options, including alternative enrollment opportunities.”

Cuyahoga Falls student Alexandra Kohnen, who is not affected by the cancellation of open enrollment, spoke at the board meeting on behalf of her friends, calling safety a “serious and ongoing concern” and noting the number of recorded fights in the Akron schools.

Cuyahoga Falls Board of Education Member Courtney Zimmerman spoke following student comments.

“You have every right to be sad and angry; I’m sad and angry, too,” Zimmerman said. “I encourage you to learn more about school funding and to speak out to your state legislatures. The state of Ohio could prioritize supporting local school districts with funding and they choose not to, year after year, putting us in a situation where we have to make decisions that we would, really, rather not. And it’s not, at all, a reflection on how we value our open enrolled students.” 

In an email, Stacey Hodoh, communications director for the Akron Public Schools, said the district is preparing for the return of students who had previously been open-enrolled in the Cuyahoga Falls and Norton schools. That includes reaching out to families to answer questions, connecting them with the district’s Engagement Center and expanding capacity through new construction and the district’s ongoing College & Career Academies.

“For every student who resides in Akron but attends elsewhere, APS loses approximately $10,000 in funding,” the email said. “Bringing these students back allows the district to retain those state and local tax dollars. While there are incremental costs for supplies and staffing, the ‘per-pupil’ funding follows the student, which helps stabilize our long-term financial forecast.”

Hodoh said returning students can attend their neighborhood school based on their home address, or they can request open enrollment for schools outside their attendance zone.

And she said student safety is the district’s highest priority, noting that the Akron Public Schools has formalized a partnership with the Akron Police Department to strengthen its security presence beyond its on-site teams. The district also uses the Stay Safe, Speak Up! hotline and the SaferOH tip line so students can report concerns at any time.