School enrollment is up

Enrollment at Sisters Elementary was up only slightly when students returned to classrooms on September 3, while the middle/high school saw a jump of 33 students, from 551 to 588.

However, superintendent Steve Swisher cautioned that the numbers were likely to change between Tuesday and Friday at the end of the first week of school.

"As I was talking to (elementary principal) Tim Comfort about enrollment, two more students walked through the door who had not registered. There will probably be others who registered and don't show up," Swisher explained.

While the overall elementary school enrollment is up by only seven students, there is a bulge in grades three and four, Swisher said. Third grade went from 74 students to 86, and fourth grade went from 69 students to 88.

At the same time, sixth grade enrollment dropped from 89 to 77. Kindergarten numbers dropped from 74 to 71 students.

"...I am looking at the Kindergarten enrollment where we have four sessions. Do we need to take any of those resources and apply them to grades three and four?" Swisher asked.

"That is a tough decision, because you want to keep the kindergarten and first grade class loads low," he added.

At the high school, Swisher said a small graduating class of 65 students last year was replaced by an incoming class of 80 seniors, and there is another bulge between eighth and tenth grades.

Some of these students will attend math classes in three classrooms at the Sisters Baptist Church next door under an agreement reached between the church and the school earlier in the summer.

"We will also be looking at shifting some resources, such as educational assistants," Swisher said.

"We'll be counting actual noses this Friday. We'll have a better set of numbers the following Friday and we'll really know where we are on September 30."