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Schools

Lindbergh School District Enrollment Surges

School officials see families with young children flocking to the district.

The official head count at Lindbergh schools is surprisingly high even relative to past years’ growth, school officials say, and justify the district’s construction efforts. 

Rick Francis, the district’s assistant superintendent of personnel services, said the state’s official enrollment numbers show this year will be the district’s third highest jump in students in its history.

“We continue to grow,” Francis told school board members during Tuesday’s meeting at the district’s Early Childhood Center. “We have 50 new students per year on average the last 10 years and now we look at this increase of 145 and wonder if it is an anomaly or a new trend.”

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The district’s total enrollment has jumped from 5,706 last year to 5,851 in the current school year. The state tallies students on the last Wednesday of each September.

The biggest increase is seen in the district’s elementary schools with 101 additional students—from 2,325 in 2010 to 2,426 in 2011.

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The surge in enrollment eclipses the district’s five-year average of 50 new elementary students per year. For example, in the most drastic case of kindergarten students the district seen an increase in 46 students since last year.

Francis said most of the elementary increases were from families with young children moving into the district.

The enrollment increases equate to two or three additional classrooms filled with students, and justify the district’s need to create more classroom space on its five campuses and recent purchase of Dressel Elementary School on Musick Avenue, Francis reported to the board.

The district recently completed a large-scale construction project funded through a $31 million bond issue approved by voters in 2008. The project increases classroom space through work at five elementary schools and two middle schools.

The board also purchased Dressel Elementary and accompanying 10 acres for $1.93 million in an effort to accommodate an anticipated 450 additional students by 2015.

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