Lower school enrollment expected

The Sisters School District is still planning for a drop in enrollment from last year. The decrease is across the board in all three schools. The total decline is about 125 students, or about 10 percent from the end of the 2006-2007 school year.

This number was originally forecast last May. Superintendent Elaine Drakulich has not changed the forecast. "I have no reason to believe there is a change from where we were last spring," in estimates, she said.

The exception is kindergarten. With new funding for all-day kindergarten, Drakulich said the numbers were actually up slightly to 56 kindergartners registered for the new year.

Drakulich said there has been some "informal" information that additional families with children were moving from the area (see related story, page 3). She noted that there is no support for the information. Board member Mike Gould said at the last meeting that he knows of families leaving, but they have not been identified.

Drakulich said she had asked staff to be on the lookout for "requests for records," which would indicate a student is transferring to a different school district.

Drakulich said she did not cut staff or the budget when enrollment dropped at the beginning of last year, and was able to do some restructuring for the beginning of the current, 2008-09 year. She said that if enrollment drops more than anticipated this year, "I will need to be looking at cuts" immediately.