District's enrollment increases by 711 students
October 28, 2009
More than 700 new students are sitting in District 308 classrooms this year according to the district's Enrollment and Class Size report. This increase has raised the district's total enrollment to 16,182 and resulted in increases at the high school (up 409 students), junior high (up 42 students) and elementary (up 260 students) levels.
The largest increases were seen at the high school level. The district's 709 students in the Class of 2009 were replaced this year by 1,258 incoming freshmen. Oswego High School received the lion's share of the overall increase (305) compared to Oswego East High School's (104), which mostly resulted from adjusting the high school boundaries to equalize the number of students between the two schools. Currently, Oswego High School serves 1,946 students compared to Oswego East's 2,178 students. Forecast numbers—counting only those students currently in the district—show that during the next couple of years, both high schools will experience overcrowding.
The same method--using boundary changes to equalize student enrollment--resulted in changes at the junior high level. While increases were seen at Bednarcik Junior High (35) and Traughber Junior High (48), decreases were seen at Plank Junior High (47) and Thompson Junior High (4). This shift resulted in 2009-10 enrollments at the junior high level of 899 Thompson students, 896 Traughber students, 881 Plank students and 846 Bednarcik students.
At the elementary level, the largest increase in students was seen at Southbury elementary, up by 245 students, mainly due to the boundary changes. Also recording increases this year are Grande Park Elementary (100), Lakewood Creek Elementary (87), Churchill Elementary (42), Homestead Elementary (42), The Wheatlands Elementary (30), Wolf's Crossing Elementary (12), and Boulder Hill Elementary (6). Only three elementary schools showed a decrease in their numbers of students this year: Prairie Point Elementary (52), Old Post Elementary (29), and Long Beach Elementary (28). The enrollment numbers at both Fox Chase Elementary and Hunt Club Elementary (which houses the previous East View student population) remained the same as last year.
The increases at the elementary level are expected to continue as growing number of first graders have been entering the district (102 more this year than in 2008-09).
Brokaw Early Learning Center, which targets special education and at-risk preschoolers, decreased its enrollment by 66 students. Although there remains a waiting list at the school, reduced state funding has limited the number of students that could be served by the district. However, since the official enrollment numbers were compiled for the state on Sept. 30, additional funding became available and an additional 30 students were registered at the ELC.
Click here to view the full presentation, which also includes class size information.