District 88

enrollment

drops again

By CHANCE PRIGGE

Journal Staff Writer

NEW ULM -- Roll calls are a little shorter again this year in District 88 classrooms.

Friday's student count put the district's enrollment at 2,437, which is down from 2,471 at the end of September 2001.

"Our declining pattern continues," Superintendent Harold Remme said. "On the bright side, it appears the decline has been down this year."

The past couple years had been especially bad for the district. An enrollment check at the end of September 2000 had 2,563 students, which means the district lost 92 students for 2001.

"I think we had over 100 less students the year before that," Remme said.

But this year's 37-student drop isn't final. Some students may be on attendance rolls but not showing up for class.

"We don't remove them from our rolls until 15 days have passed," Remme said.

From grade levels kindergarten through eighth, each grade has experienced a drop except first grade, which went up five students.

At the high school level, grades nine and 11 saw increases of 26 and 29 respectively, while grade 10 saw an increase of nine and grade 12 of six.

Remme said he expects the declining enrollments to eventually level off and plateau, but the district will have to wait for the negative numbers to work their way through the grades.

In the meantime, the district will have to deal with the budgetary problems that ensue from a slightly shrinking enrollment.

"That has a significant impact on our budget," Remme said.

The biggest blows come from when students reach the upper grades. Essentially, the amount of money allotted to the district per student increases as he or she gets older. A decline in high school students is more devastating to the budget than a decline in the same number of elementary school students.

The call for a vote to pass the levy referendum last year stemmed largely from the declining enrollment.

"One of the main purposes of the referendum was to cushion the impact of an enrollment decline," Remme said.

But there isn't much the district can do other than do its best to make programs and services look as attractive as possible and watch the numbers.

"Even as the rate has reduced, they're still watching enrollment on a month-to-month basis and using the statistics to help make decisions," Remme said.

While he couldn't say exactly why the enrollment was dropping, Remme had some theories.

"It's a reflection on reduced births in our country and community," he said. "I think New Ulm has had a shortage of housing over the last few years."

He also said there are many choices available to families today in the education market.

Friday's figures were up slightly from preliminary numbers in August that had a total enrollment of 2,404.