School districts recently certified their enrollments for the 2015-16 school year.

Greene County School District saw a dramatic difference in their enrollment numbers from last year to this year.  The official enrollment is 1,298.8 students, which is a 14.43 increase over last year.  The news is certainly better than year’s enrollment which was down about 19 students from the 2013-14 school year.  Superintendent Tim Christensen is excited to see that enrollment is increasing and he attributes most of it to the projects and developments going on in the county.

However, Paton-Churdan saw a slight decrease in their certified enrollment to 198 students, which is 6.2 students fewer than last year at 204.  Principal Annie Smith says even though they are down in the number of students based off the certified enrollment, they look at the actual number of students that they are educating, which is up one from last year to 199 students.  She points out that their actual enrollment numbers have increased every year for over five years.

“Not a lot of schools are able to say that the actual kids that they are educating is up, especially rural schools because we know how hard it is to keep that enrollment because people are going to other places.  It is exciting to say that we’ve been up for multiple years.”

Certified enrollment is counted as those who live in the district and attend that school and it also counts those who open enroll to other districts as well.  It does not count those who open enroll into the district that live outside of it.