School administrators spent the summer preparing for the possibility of a dramatic drop in enrollment, caused by former Farmland workers moving from the community.

Sunday, September 09, 2001

School administrators spent the summer preparing for the possibility of a dramatic drop in enrollment, caused by former Farmland workers moving from the community. But the first week of school indicates a healthy enrollment for District 241.

In fact, early head counts in Albert Lea’s four elementary schools are higher than expected, said Mark Stotts, director of finance and operations. It could be a sign that the district’s declining enrollment is slowing.

The district projected a K-6 enrollment of 1,793 students to begin the new school year, but the numbers released Friday revealed a pleasant surprise – an enrollment of 1,817.

&uot;We’re definitely feeling more optimistic,&uot; Stotts said. &uot;We haven’t really seen a noticeable decline from the Farmland fire.&uot;

Stotts was also pleased with another piece of good news – kindergarten enrollments are also higher than projected. The district’s youngest class has 234 students 17 more than expected.

&uot;That could be a very good sign. Our kindergarten classes have been getting smaller and smaller, but this one is bigger than last year,&uot; Stotts said. &uot;Maybe the trend is reversing.&uot;

And the numbers may go up even more, Stotts said.

&uot;There’s always a few families that come back late from vacation and miss that first week of school,&uot; he said.

Stotts said Fridays figures are only preliminary, and enrollments usually drop a bit during the year. Farmland workers and their families could decide anytime.

&uot;We’re keeping our fingers crossed that these numbers are going hold because this is better than expected,&uot; he said.

Despite the optimism, the elementary school population has 118 less students compared to last year’s actual enrollment. But that figure can be misleading – last year’s sixth-grade class was one of the largest in the district. That’s more than 350 students who are now at Southwest Middle School as seventh graders, which accounts for most of the drop, Stotts said.

Enrollment figures for the Albert Lea High School will be available at the end of next week. Stotts hopes those numbers will also come in higher that projected.

&uot;We know were declining from year to year, but the main issue for us is to slow that down as much as possible,&uot; he said. &uot;We feared the Farmland situation would speed up the decline.&uot;

&uot;So far, we’re hanging in there,&uot; Stotts added.