Sean C. Morgan
Of The New Era
School started last week with a bit of a surprise for District 55 officials.
While projecting an increase in student population, district enrollment actually went down. Officials said they weren’t sure of their final numbers as of Friday, but it appeared enrollment declined from 2,390 to perhaps 2,320.
“It was a fairly reasonable start,” Supt. Larry Horton said, but “we’re worried about enrollment declining.”
At Oak Heights, enrollment went from 352 at the beginning of last year to 311 this year, Horton said Friday. Ten of those missing are at Sweet Home Charter School, but the charter school doesn’t account for the whole difference from projections.
Sweet Home Charter School started with 69 students, Horton said. Forty-three of them were in the district last year, and 65 are from Sweet Home. Some of the other new Sweet Home students at the Charter School were home schooled or moved over from Sand Ridge Charter School in Lebanon.
The Charter School had 73 students on Monday.
With hundreds of new homes and lots planned in Sweet Home, officials are perplexed by the lack of student population growth.
“I really thought that we would see a hundred new kids this year,” Horton said. “We might see a hundred new, but we’ve had a hundred leave, or 140. Right now, the crystal ball is pretty foggy.”
The district planned its budget based on zero growth, with losses to the Charter School offset by gains in local growth.
On the bright side for the district, things seemed to go relatively smoothly for the first week.
Transportation always has hiccups, Horton said, but “I didn’t get any calls, which is the first time.”
About the only problem, he said, was that the district had one bus break down the first day. The bus was fixed, then broke down again the next day. That bus is decommissioned for a while.
Otherwise, there were few bumps in the road.
“All week long, I’ve had two phone calls (in general), which is unusual,” Horton said.
The district has 16 new teachers this year, he said. Most of them are at the high school. The junior high had no new teachers, while turnover was low at elementary schools.
“It was a great start,” said Foster Principal Glenna DeSouza, who herself is new to the district. “It went really smooth.”
The school’s new “peaceful playground,” with a variety of games painted onto the pavement, was a big hit with the students, she said. The school has about 290 students to start the year, down a little from last year.
Hawthorne Principal Mike Aman said school was “very good” last week. The school has a new first-grade teacher, and overall enrollment is down there too, due to a variety of factors.
The school lost the district’s “Opportunity Room,” an alternative education program, to Holley School. That represented about 12 students.
Hawthorne is running two classes at every grade this year with a fifth- and sixth-grade blend to help deal with a large fifth-grade class, Aman said. Fifth-grade classrooms have 28 and 27 students. Hawthorne also has a large third grade. Two classes have 28 students each.
Enrollment is down slightly from last year, Aman said. “To be honest, a number of those students went to the Charter School.
“Everything is going well. It’s a first week, and there’s just a lot going on.”
Holley Principal Jan Sharp said things were going “very well” at her school.
“We’re up and going, and we have no classes over 25 right now,” she said. Last year, Holley had a big five-six blend with more than 30 students for most of the year.
Holley had 91 students on Friday plus eight in the Opportunity Room, she said. The school has no new teachers. A temporary teacher from last year was hired as a permanent this year.
School was business as usual, starting smoothly, Oak Heights Principal Keith Winslow said. The school was at 319 students based on latest numbers Friday afternoon, down from 348 at the end of the year.
Oak Heights lost a large sixth grade and had a smaller incoming kindergarten class, Winslow said. Also, “quite a few families moved out of state. We sent quite a few files out of state. We have 25 new families here with 40 kids at this point.”
Generally, Oak Heights’ population is not so mobile, he said. “We’re kind of scratching our heads.”
Oak Heights has two new faces on its faculty, a new first-grade teacher and a new resource room teacher, he said.
Nothing was out of the ordinary the first week, he said. The kids were kids.
“One of the teachers asked one of the boys to come down and check her mailbox.”
He returned, and she asked him if anything was in her mailbox. He told her there was.
She asked if he had picked it up. He replied, “No.”
“Kids are sometimes so literal,” Winslow said. Nothing out of the ordinary.