School enrollment holding steady

YAKIMA -- The numbers will rise and fall a bit before the end of the school year.

But, heading into the first few weeks of classes, enrollment throughout the Yakima Valley is generally holding steady.

At the Yakima School District -- which has open enrollment and serves the largest number of students in the region -- numbers look a lot like last year, and the economic downturn has likely had some influence.

"We are as full as ever across the board," said Evon LaGrou, director of central registration for YSD.

She's projecting about 14,685 students for the 2010-2011 school year, about the same as last year.

What's new, LaGrou said, is that some families are moving to or from here for jobs, a result of the recession.

"We have people that move here from other states or the coast because Yakima still has some work," LaGrou said, noting she's seen an increase in the number of families from the west side of Washington as well as other states, particularly Arizona.

"It's all socio-economic backgrounds. It's all ethnicities," she said. "People are moving because they can't find work, or they found work here, or they have people they can stay with."

In Selah, numbers are holding relatively steady, according to assistant superintendent Chris Scacco, who was projecting to start the year with about 3,192 students, down about 40 from the end of the last school year.

Scacco said numbers are up a bit at the junior high, and there's also been a spike in the first grade, prompting the district to hire another first-grade teacher the week before school started.

Another enrollment trend that's linked to the economy: More families in the Yakima School District are homeless, staying at shelters or missions, living in their vehicles, or "doubling up," LaGrou said.

The first week of school, her staff was attempting to call every parent whose child or children didn't make it on the first day to help determine enrollment.

"It takes a couple of days to find out what our true numbers are," LaGrou said. "It's kind of like a shuffle. It's kind of like a dance."

That's because some parents don't realize school starts before the long Labor Day weekend. And others may have left the area without withdrawing their kids from school.

Districts take formal counts once a month. The first formal counts for most districts take place this week. By October, districts usually have pretty firm numbers.

In the Yakima School District, enrollment has been slowly "creeping up" since at least 2003, LaGrou said.

Last year, there was an unexpected bump in the number of kindergartners. The number of students attending Yakima Online! is also growing. So is the number of students from outside the district who are taking classes at Yakima Valley Technical Skills Center.

Some of those bumps are being evened out by a slightly smaller ninth-grade cohort this year. LaGrou's expecting about 988 freshmen districtwide, making it the smallest freshman class in about six years. But, she said, that particular cohort has always been small.

And the landlocked district isn't likely to see a big spike anytime soon.

"We're limited by our city limits, and we're limited by our building," LaGrou said. "The main area of the city of Yakima is pretty well built. West Valley, East Valley is where they have room to grow."

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In West Valley, which has been growing throughout the past 10 years, district officials were projecting a slight increase to about 4,760 students. That's up from 4,730 at the end of the 2009-2010 school year. And it's up from the 2001-2002 school year, when enrollment was about 4,330.

According to Superintendent Peter Ansingh, the biggest jumps in the last decade were between the 2004-2005 and 2005-2006, and 2006-2007 and 2007-2008 academic years, which each saw a spike of about 100 students.

"But mostly, it's been slow but steady growth," said Ansingh, adding most of the gains have been at the elementary level and pointing to the construction of new homes in the area as the reason for the upturn.

In East Valley, which has also seen some construction, district officials were projecting a small increase as well. In fact, according to Superintendent John Schieche, preregistration for kindergarten was up in all three buildings: East Valley, Terrace Heights and Moxee elementary schools.

But, he said, "We're up across the board, fairly evenly distributed K through 12, with some ups and downs."

Last September, the district had 2,828 students. Officials projected 2,843 for this year.

"Since 2003, we've had continuous enrollment increases each year with the exception of one year," Schieche said.

Only 2008-2009 experienced a decrease, he said.

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Like West Valley and East Valley, the Sunnyside School District is also showing gains this year.

The district is up 175 students over last year, according to spokesman Curtis Campbell. And the growth is at all grade levels.

"We're at 6,091. We projected 5,916," Campbell said, adding the district had 5,928 students last year, not including preschoolers. The district discontinued its preschool program this year, so he left that number out of last year's count for a more accurate comparison.

The biggest bump, he said, is in kindergarten, which has 552 students this year compared with 504 last year.

Numbers are also up in first and second grade. There's a slight dip in third grade, which went from 525 to 465. But there's an increase in fourth grade -- from 469 to 521 -- as well as bumps in grades 6 and 8.

At the high school, there are 1,621 students compared with 1,531, with the biggest spike in the senior class -- from 371 last year to 430 this year.

Growth in the Sunnyside School District has been steadily increasing, Campbell said, noting enrollment in the 2008-2009 academic year was 5,620.

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The increases in Sunnyside and East and West Valley reflect a national trend. Overall public school enrollment has grown 26 percent -- from 39.4 million to 49.8 million -- between 1985 and 2009, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

The increase is bigger in prekindergarten through eighth grade, which has seen a 29 percent bump, compared with high school, where the jump has been 20 percent. Enrollment in prekindergarten alone spiked 614 percent from 1985 to 2007, while enrollment in the other elementary grades grew 23 percent.

For the 10-year period between 1999 and 2009, overall public school numbers rose 6 percent.

And continued growth is projected. Record levels of enrollment through at least 2018 are forecasted by the National Center for Education Statistics.

The total enrollment is expected to grow 8 percent between 2009 and 2018.

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Naches Valley may be the exception locally.

Enrollment there has been declining and numbers are bucking the national trend.

In 2004, enrollment at NVSD hovered around 1,560, according to Superintendent Duane Lyons. Now, it's about 1,380, same as last year.

But with smaller class sizes in kindergarten through eighth grade, another dip is expected. In those lower grades, the number of students ranges from about 90 to about 110. That compares to about 125 to 150 at the high school. As those students graduate, they'll be replaced with smaller classes.

"This year and last year, we were about even, and the two years before that, we were about even, but we took a little drop," Lyons said. "We'll have at least another 100-student drop in the next four years. Then it should stabilize a little bit."

The enrollment, Lyons said, "reflects available housing.

"We don't have -- like East Valley, for example -- a lot of new, starter housing coming in," he said. "Folks that are here enjoy it here and stay here. There aren't many new, young families."

* Adriana Janovich can be reached at 509-577-7653 or ajanovich@yakimaherald.com.