|
|
|
|
|
Home  News Latest However slight, school population going down
|
|
However slight, school population going down |
|
|
|
|
Thursday, 16 November 2006 |
It may be small, only two students, however the Conrad school population is continuing its present trend to decline.
The official student count took place in October and starting at the high school, it shows a population of 204 students on campus.
The count last year at this time was 217. It is interesting to note that two classes actually show an increase, but the sophomore class, which had 71 students in ‘05, is now a class of 42, and the incoming freshman dropped four students, going from 48 to 44.
The junior class has the largest population on the campus with 69 students, which is up from 51 last year and the graduating Class of ’06 witnessed a small gain from last year, going from 47 students to 49.
However, the high school population has seen a steady drop in population every year since 1997 when there were 282 kids roaming the halls.
There was one exception, that being last year when there was a little tweak and the numbers went up to 237, only to begin another decline.
Since 1998/90 the high school has averaged right around 223 students with the peak year being in 1996/97 when there were 289 students and low being this year at 204.
Is Conrad close to becoming a Class C school district? Presently, in a word, the answer is “No,” says Superintendent of Schools Lynn Utterback. It would take a drop of approximately 80-90 more students from the high school before that would be a consideration,
October’s count shows the total elementary (K-8) moved up the charts by one from last year, going from 405 to 406.
The middle school (Utterback-UMS) has 195 students which takes in grades 5-8. The fifth grade was added to UMS after Prairie View School closed due to our declining enrollment.
The fifth grade class at UMS numbers 44, down from 45 the year before. The sixth grade class actually didn’t move, staying at 50 kids this year and from the official count in 2005.
Meanwhile the seventh grade class went up by two students from 51 to 53 and like the sixth grade, the eighth graders didn’t move up or down, but stayed the same with 48 students.
The Meadowlark School now houses grades K-4 after the closure of PVS and has a population of 211, the same as 2005.
Grade K is another class that didn’t budge up or down in population from a year ago, having 42 students.
Grade one moved one rung up on the ladder from 40 to 41. Grade two slipped by four students from 45 to 41, the third grade increased from 36 to 49 and the fourth grade dropped 10 students, going from 48 to 38.
The total enrollment for Conrad schools is 610, down from 622 last year and is following the steady trend downward in which the school district peaked out at 862 total students. Since then the overall enrollment has been in a free fall.
Even though there was a steady drop in school population in the last decade, over that time Conrad averaged about 815 overall in their school system.
Since the year 2000 to date, the average number of students averaged out to 679, however, there were three years where the population was still over 700 kids in the system and two where there were 678 and 674 students respectively.
There was a big drop in population, from 674 (2003/04) to 628 (2004/05) and those numbers continue to go down to the 610 that are in the system now.
Another point to take under consideration with a dropping population is staff and curriculum cuts.
“At this point in time, we have to wait until the legislation does their magic,” says Utterback. He noted that lawmakers in Helena have a surplus of funding this year, but it isn’t known what will be allocated to the school systems until after they open their session in January. |
|
