PARKERSBURG - Enrollment numbers released Tuesday by Wood County Schools give residents a snapshot of what this fall's transition means for area schools.
Superintendent Bill Niday presented the enrollment numbers at Tuesday evening's Wood County Board of Education meeting as part of a monthly report on the district's grade transition. This fall all of the district's sixth-grade students will attend its middle schools while all ninth-graders will attend the high schools.
The district's Parkersburg high schools saw the greatest jump in enrollment numbers. The two Parkersburg schools each are adding about 400-500 ninth-graders. As of July 10, Parkersburg High School had 1,847 students enrolled for this fall. Parkersburg South High School showed 1,660 students enrolled.
"That is pretty much the numbers we anticipated for those schools based on the grade shift," Niday said.
Williamstown High School, which was not affected by the grade shift, showed 652 students enrolled in grades 7-12.
The district's middle schools showed relatively level numbers in student enrollments. Though each of the schools added a sixth-grade class, they also lost a ninth-grade class, causing their enrollment numbers to stay basically the same.
Niday said officials are seeing an enrollment trend at the middle school level of smaller grades.
"We're seeing a general decline in enrollment," he said. "Our middle schools are smaller than they were 2-3 years ago when they were junior highs."
Niday said Edison's enrollment numbers always tend to be the highest among the middle schools, and Vandy's numbers actually are up from previous years, despite the fact that some Vandy students use school choice to attend either Jackson Middle School or Williamstown High School.
"Those are the schools that made AYP (adequate yearly progress) so they are the ones students can transfer into as part of school choice," he said.
Niday said preliminary enrollment figures for the district's elementary schools did not include all pre-kindergarten and kindergarten enrollment. Currently the school system is showing 788 kindergarten students enrolled for the fall, but Niday said those numbers will increase up to and through the first days of school as parents complete paperwork and get students immunized.
"We always pick up enrollments during those first few days and weeks of school,"
Niday said it is too early in the process to make any determinations based on these enrollment numbers.
"Because we don't have all the enrollments in yet, we really wont be able to see where the patterns are until about a week before school, and really we'll have the best results on the first day of school," he said.
Wood County Schools saw a decrease last year in 2nd month enrollments, but ended the school year up in enrollment, about seven students more than the previous year.
"That was the first time that has happened in years," Niday said.
