Sean C. Morgan
School District 55 enrollment is down by 90 students this year from 2,463 last year.
School officials had difficulty estimating total initial enrollment numbers this year because the high school’s attendance computer was down.
Since the start of school, the district has been able to count high school enrollment, which is up by nine from last year at this time.
The junior high is smaller by about 45 students, Supt. Larry Horton said. The incoming seventh grade was smaller than the outgoing eighth grade.
The remaining enrollment declines, 54 students, were at the elementary level, with the majority of the decline at Holley and Hawthorne schools. Oak Heights is up by 15 and Crawfordsville up by five.
State funding for schools is based on enrollment numbers.
“Finding is always a year behind,” Supt. Horton said. “They take the numbers for two years and take the highest. If the number stays down next year, it would impact us about $400,000.”
If enrollment climbed back up next year, it would not affect the district’s funding, Supt. Horton said.
Last year, district enrollment was up by about 72 students from the previous year. By the end of the year, enrollment was up by only two students.
“In the two years I’ve been here, (enrollment) is pretty hard to predict,” Supt. Horton said. “I would suspect people are leaving Oregon to find better economic times in other states. We have the highest unemployment in the nation. I would suspect that people are looking for work.”
Usually, by the end of the second week, the district has everyone that is coming, Supt. Horton said. If history repeats itself, then enrollment will decline in December and continue a general decline throughout the year.
“I don’t have a rationale for that,” Supt. Horton said, but every district he has worked in has seen similar trends during the school year.
Around the district, class sizes range as high as 32 in a third- and fourth-grade blend at Hawthorne. The district has several classrooms with 26 to 28 students.
The smallest classrooms are at Crawfordsville in a blend of first through third grade with 21 students.
Based on enrollment and all funds budget figures, the district has a ratio of eight students to each full-time equivalent employee. The teacher to student ratio is one to 18, and the district has nearly 252 students per administrator.
Dividing the district’s $18.6 million in bond projects over 29 years and including all funds, the total cost per student this year is just more than $8,000.