The Greene County and Paton-Churdan school districts have released their respective certified enrollment figures for this school year.

Greene County Superintendent Tim Christensen says their certified enrollment was down about 41 students compared to the previous school year. P-C Superintendent Kreg Lensch tells Raccoon Valley Radio they are down six students compared to last year. Both superintendents said most of the decline was due to families choosing to remote learn or homeschool, because of COVID-19 concerns. Christensen hopes the Iowa Department of Education does something to help school districts that have seen drops in enrollment due to issues that COVID-19 presented.

“They are collecting data from all of the districts because the majority of the districts that I’ve spoken to, I think are down in enrollment, and a lot of it due to what we’ve got going on in the state and in the country. I think the state is planning to look at this situation. I don’t know whether they’ll make a decision to hold districts harmless, or what they’ll do. But hopefully they factor this in as we look at finances for next year.”      

Both districts will receive a 101-percent budget guarantee from the Department of Education. This allows school districts to make-up for the shortfall from this year’s budget for next year.