For the first time in 16 years, enrollment is up on the first day of school in the Grand Forks public schools.
The district, which includes elementary, middle and high schools in Grand Forks and Grand Forks Air Force Base, recorded 6,773 students in grades K-12 when classes opened Wednesday and Thursday. That was 55 more students than on the first day of school last year, and 181 students more than were enrolled on the last day of the 2010-2011 school term, according to the school district.
The opening day enrollment at Grand Forks Air Force Base was at 310 students, down 27 students from last year’s first day and up 27 students from last spring.
Superintendent Larry Nybladh said analyzing the numbers made him “both cautiously optimistic and curious.”
“I suppose to some observers an increase of 55 students or about eight-tenths of one percent may be statistically insignificant,” Nyladh said in a news release. “But when you’ve had a 16-year trend of enrollment decline, there is reason to celebrate when one sees a deviation from that trend.
He said the district would have to spend more time studying the data to determine if the increase was a one-year aberration in a long-term trend, or the start of a new trend. Officials also will try to determine the factors that influenced the numbers, he said.
Assistant Superintendent Jody Thompson said it was typically positive to see an increase in elementary school enrollment, up 114 students compared with the first day last fall. An increase in elementary numbers should translate to driving enrollment in upper grades, he said.
The district has conducted a number of studies to analyze the 16-year pattern of decline. School boards in the city and at the base have endorsed the concept of more study via an action plan, a news release said.
Herald Staff Report. (2011, August 26). GF schools report increase in enrollment.
Grand Forks Herald. Retrieved from
http://www.grandforksherald.com/event/article/id/213911/publisher_ID/40/
