©2011 Galesburg Broadcasting Co.
| Enrollment Up in Galesburg School District, Except at High School |
An official with the Galesburg School District used the terms "turned a corner" and "perplexing" when describing the district's numbers after the sixth day of student enrollment.
District-205 Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction, Joel Estes, told the Galesburg School Board last night overall, enrollment is up, from almost 46-hundred students this year, to 4,550 last year, and he says that's promising for the district. But Estes says while enrollment in grades Kindergarten through eight is up, the 1,422 students currently at Galesburg High School is down about 65 from last year.
Estes says he can't really pinpoint why those numbers are down, but an issue that's gotten a lot of attention in the past year might be to blame.
"I guess if I had to surmise what's happened here, this is a reflection of that significant drop-out rate that we had last year, and we saw it really take off last year," Estes said.
Estes says that's why he's happy the new alternative school is in place, which he says has already seen remarkable progress in its first weeks of use. The G.H.S. enrollment number includes the nearly 50 students at the alternative school. He says it will help turn the dropout rate around, and it's starting this year.
Estes says while increased overall enrollment is good, it's also a problem. "At the elementary levels, we really are increasing significantly," Estes said. "And our buildings, in some particular cases -- King as an example, Silas Willard -- are really pretty crowded."
Estes says some students have had to be moved to other schools as a result. But he says overall, it's still a good problem to have. |
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| 09 15 09 by Newsroom |
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