The Garden City Telegram

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The numbers are in: Area schools see varying enrollment growths

Published 10/26/2011 in Local News

By RACHAEL GRAY

rgray@gctelegram.com

District officials in area schools are seeing varying student growth after last month's head count that helps to determine student enrollment.

The number of students in a district helps determine state aid. State aid for school districts is distributed based upon a full-time equivalency (FTE) formula. For example, a kindergarten pupil is counted as 0.5 in the formula while other students are counted as 1.0. Some high school seniors may be counted as less than 1.0 because they may not carry a full course load, the result of already having finished or nearly finished the credits required for graduation. There are other variables figured into the FTE formula.

Other school budget funds come from property taxes. The bulk of the budget comes from dollars administered and distributed by the Kansas State Department of Education from various funds, the largest of which is general state aid.

Enrollment figures in the Holcomb school district are up significantly, primarily at the kindergarten level.

USD 363 Superintendent Jean Rush said the district-wide student count this year is 1,010 students, which includes Holcomb's two elementary schools, middle school and high school.

The full-time student equivalency of those students equals 947.5 students.

That is 14 students more than last year's figures, when enrollment came in at 996 bodies, Rush said.

The number of students determines the 2012 general fund budget for the district's general operations costs, according to the superintendent. That figure is about $6.47 million.

The largest increase is at the kindergarten level, Rush said, with 94 kindergartners total, equal to a full-time equivalency of 49.5 students. Kindergartners only attend half a day of school. Due to the high numbers, kindergarten enrollment has been closed to out-of-district students, Rush also said.

Most of the other grades besides kindergarten have similar enrollment figures to last year.

At Ulysses High School, Principal Rodger Hilton reported last year's head count was 430. This year, the number was 443 for grades nine through 12. Hilton said about the same number of students had stayed in the district, but class size varied between the outgoing senior class and the incoming freshman class.

"We still have the kids we had. We graduated a small senior class and had a large incoming freshman class," he said.

At Hugoton High School, Kathy Pate, registrar, said the number of high school students was up two from last year. After the Sept. 20 head count, HHS had 294 students. At the middle school, which is seventh and eighth grade, the head count was 152. The number of elementary school students was 583 this year, which doesn't include 4-year-olds and at-risk programs, Pate said.

Staff at Cimarron High School reported 186 students in grades nine through 12. The number was up by a couple students because of a larger incoming class than a graduating class, staff said.

At Cimarron Elementary School, in grades pre-kindergarten to sixth grade, the head count was 431. Last year, the school ended the year with 435 students, according to Jessica Nestor, secretary.

She said the preschool numbers were down because of limited space. Some students had to go other places.

"We're actually growing," she said.

At South Gray High School in Montezuma, the head count was down one between this year and last, said Natalie Glassco, secretary. Last year's head count was 92 and this year's was 91, Glassco said.

At Montezuma Elementary School, staff reported a head count of 98 in 2010 and 110 in 2011.

Tim Skinner, principal of the grade school and high school, said the reason for the larger student body was transfers.

"It was partly just move-ins. We had a family from Hugoton. We had some kids transfer from Dodge. One or two transferred from Cimarron. We did lose some that moved out. But we've gotten in more than we've lost," Skinner said.

At Dighton, staff reported 250 in the district.

Joel Applegate, superintendent, said the district had 13 more students last year. After this year's head count, 150 were counted in the elementary school, which is preschool, kindergarten and first through sixth grades.

At the junior high, 30 students were counted. Seventy students are enrolled in the high school.

Applegate, in his first year as superintendent, said one of the reasons students may have left the district is that parents may have been looking for jobs due to the economy.

"We had a few foster kids that moved on, too," he said.

At Healy, John LaFave, superintendent, reported 28 students in the high school, nine students in seventh and eighth grade and 26 in grades first through sixth. Kindergarten and preschool classes have five each, he reported.

Keith Higgins, superintendent of Wichita County Schools, said at the high school, 124 students were counted this year. At the seventh- and eighth-grade levels, which are housed in the high school, 67 students were counted. Higgins said the numbers were basically the same between this year and last year.

"That's almost the same number. With the junior high up one or two," he said.

Higgins said there are about four more students in the seventh grade, but four less in the junior class.

"That's why it balanced out," he said.

At Greeley County High School, 59 students were counted at the ninth- through 12-grade levels, and sixth- through eighth-graders counted at 114, staff said.

In Sublette schools, staff reported 242 students in Sublette Elementary School, 77 in the middle school and 142 in the high school.

Compared to last year, the biggest change was in the high school. In 2010 after the head count, the district had 178 at the high school, 244 in the elementary and 69 in the middle school.

"We had a big senior class graduate and a small freshman class come in," said Linn Myers, clerk.

At Satanta High School, Ron Levan, principal, reported 85 students were counted in grades nine through 12 and 48 in seventh and eighth grades.

Levan said the building was down 16 students from last year.

"We've had some families move out of the community for work reasons. Other than that, I don't know specific reasons (for the decline)," Levan said.

Amy DeLaRosa, superintendent at Deerfield Schools, said as a whole the district is down in numbers.

"We came down from the middle school and high school. The elementary is exactly the same as last year," she said.

As of Sept. 20, the elementary school had 119, the middle school had 57 and the high school had 90.

In Lakin, high school staff reported 179 in the building, which was a few students up from last year, according to Corrine Gugelmeyer, secretary.

Gugelmeyer gave the middle school and high school head counts, which were 192 and 277, respectively. She wasn't sure if those numbers were up or down.

At Garden City schools, enrollment increased 59 students in the district.

In September 2010, 7,549 students were counted. This year's count was 7,608.

This is the third year the district has seen an increase. For the 2009-10 school year, the district's count was 7,461.

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