School officials have been aware for some time that the pandemic caused a significant shift in public school enrollment.
Many parents became educated consumers as their children took part in remote learning. They were able to see with their own eyes the quality of their child’s education, allowing them to decide whether they should make a switch to private or charter schooling.
Since the pandemic, public school enrollment has dropped by 9%. Yet, some schools are still overcrowded, and parents are frustrated with their school system’s solutions.
In Parkland, Florida, parents filled a district meeting to discuss Marjory Stoneman Douglas’ rapidly growing enrollment numbers. Since the 2015-16 school year, the high school has been at full capacity with 3,077 students and is on its way to facing 116% capacity this year with 3,511 students.
Understandably, parents are concerned about potential redistricting forcing their children to enroll in lower-quality institutions.
In Kansas, the Wichita Public Schools Board of Education is addressing a recent spike in their student population at Wichita Southeast High School. It is the second-largest high school in the state by enrollment with nearly 2,200 students. Due to the high student population, teachers are struggling with large classroom sizes and administrators are trying to solve transportation and behavioral issues.
The district has proposed several potential solutions, such as declining special transfers and hiring long-term substitutes to help teachers with overload.
— Wichita Public Schools (@WichitaUSD259) October 3, 2022
Wichita Public Schools Division Director of Operations Fabián Armendariz said during a board meeting on Monday that COVID significantly impacted their school’s enrollment numbers.
“COVID certainly created some interesting challenges for us in terms of the enrollment trends,” he said. “This is a good problem to have. We do have more students that are wanting to stay at Southeast and are staying at Southeast. Like everything else, good things often come with other challenges.”
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Officials in Allen Independent School District located in Allen, Texas, recently sent a memo to parents addressing plans to solve their overcrowding issues by potentially shutting down two of its schools located on the east side of the city.
The district has proposed turning George J. Anderson Elementary School into an early childhood campus and closing Rountree Elementary for non-instructional use.
According to the memo, enrollment on the west side of the city is much higher than it is on the east side as 75% of their seats aren’t filled. “To put it in general terms, our schools in the west are reaching capacity limits, while our eastern schools are generally experiencing declining enrollments,” it reads.
“We very specifically moved to this school district two years ago because of this school,” said one parent in an interview with NBC DFW. Parents said they were aware the district was dealing with overcrowding issues but were blindsided by the proposed solutions.
“There is a serious concern that the west side is where the priority is, and the west side problems are being addressed and solved at the expense of east side values and priorities,” said another parent.
