By SARAH CAMPBELL
Leader staff writer
The Pulaski County Special School District has returned to the trend of declining enrollment that has plagued its schools for the past several years, with the exception of 2012-13, when there was a gain of 300.
Jacksonville and Sherwood schools lost 149 students this year, a little more than half of the 290 drop seen district-wide, according to PCSSD’s eighth-day enrollment reported Wednesday.
The Cabot School District’s eighth-day count increased by just 63, indicating that the rapid growth its schools have experienced for years is slowing.
The Beebe School District doesn’t record an eighth-day count. As of Monday, its enrollment had increased by about 90 students compared to last year’s count reported around the same time.
The Lonoke School District’s preliminary student enrollment count is 1,812, down just three students from the end of last school year.
PCSSD
PCSSD Superintendent Jerry Guess said the district is up 314 students compared to last year’s three-quarter average. That average is the total number of students who attended the first three nine- week sessions of school divided by three.
The district receives funding for the year based on the three-quarter average from the previous year, Guess said. Last year’s three-quarter average was 16,724. Thursday’s count was 17,038, he noted.
Guess explained that calculating enrollment is difficult because of factors like students who show up one day and not another, don’t enroll until after Labor Day or are still enrolling.
The superintendent said, “What we do is the best job we can (counting kids)...I’m not necessarily agreeing that we’re down. It’s hard figuring these things out...I’m still optimistic that our numbers are good.”
Guess added that the district will have a more “reliable” count on Tuesday, especially after students enrolled in eSchool, an online alternative to traditional classes, are counted.
Of the 18 PCSSD schools in The Leader’s coverage area, seven saw an increase in students, according to the eighth-day count.
Only two schools had significant gains. Sylvan Hills Elementary School’s enrollment went up by 39, while Jacksonville Middle School saw an increase of 22.
The other schools who saw more students this year than last year were Cato Elementary with 12, Tolleson Elementary with seven, Bayou Meto Elementary with six, Warren Dupree Elementary with six and Murrell Taylor Elementary with two.
With the exception of Oakbrooke Elementary, which had the same count for 2012-13 and this year, the other Jacksonville and Sherwood schools saw a drop in the number of students enrolled.
The losses were 49 for Sylvan Hills High School, 39 for North Pulaski High School, 39 for Northwood Middle School, 32 for Sylvan Hills Middle School, 26 for Jacksonville High School, 22 for Clinton Elementary, 19 for Arnold Drive Elementary, eight for Pinewood Elementary, six for Sherwood Elementary and three for Adkins Preschool.
CABOT
Cabot Superintendent Tony Thurman said he didn’t have last year’s enrollment by school.
The 2012-13 total for the district was 10,170.
This year’s eighth-day total is 10,233. That total does not include the district’s 260 pre-kindergarten students, Thurman said. “Those sections are filled immediately from the waiting list when a student drops,” he added.
Thurman also said, “We’ve been expecting growth to slow for a number of years. I have visited with other large and neighboring districts, and very few have experienced growth this year.”
He continued, “I view this as an opportunity, from the district perspective, since providing space has been the priority for a number of years. We are now able to consider options rather than building facilities. Examples would be an increase in our technology initiatives and our infrastructure to support our network in the future.”
BEEBE
Beebe Superintendent Belinda Shook said, “By this time, we have narrowed our no-shows and have a pretty good idea about how many are really enrolled.”
Although the formal total, not including pre-kindergarten students, is a little less than 3,300, Shook explained that about 30 of those are kids who moved over the summer.
Last year’s count around this time was 3,180, she said.
Shook continued, “The first two weeks have been as smooth as any year I can remember.”
With 2,800 students arriving and leaving schools that are located in one area, there were some traffic issues, she said. But that was expected, the superintendent noted.
“The parents and students have been wonderful as we have made adjustments and changes for safety reasons,” Shook added.
She also said the district just opened the new $4.5 million Beebe Middle School in McRae.
That two-story, 30,000-square-foot building has 10 classrooms, two science labs, an Environmental and Spatial Technology lab and a computer lab. To the left of the new building is a 4,200- square-foot tornado safe room designed to hold 700 people. It will be used for choir classes.
In 2004, when the McRae School District was consolidated into the Beebe School District, Beebe school officials promised to put in a storm shelter that the community could use during threatening weather.
At the dedication of the new school, Shook said, “This building started as a need for space. Our old building was about 15,000 square feet, built in the 1940s. The classrooms were very small. Although we all loved it and hated to see it go, the termites loved it as well.”
The district’s only new principal is Brandy Dillin, who will be leading the teachers and staff of the new middle school.
Shook said, “She is doing a wonderful job and I could not be more pleased with how she has everything running. She is a sharp thinker and a hard worker and I expect Beebe Middle School to be among the best in the state, if not the best.”
LONOKE
Lonoke Superintendent Suzanne Bailey, said, “We are showing to be down just a little at the present, although we are still in the process of looking at student numbers on a daily basis until after the Labor Day holiday. They can and tend to change.”
She added that the schools that have seen a drop in enrollment are the middle school and elementary school.
Bailey continued, “The high school and primary (school) are pretty constant with the high school having a few more at this time than at last year’s end.”
She said the district hopes to have a more accurate count after the holiday.
The enrollment counts are of K-12 students.