District to have capacity for projected enrollment in 2020
November 18, 2015
Enrollment projections indicate Moorhead Area Public Schools will see an average growth of 3.6 percent each year for the next five years, according to information shared at the Nov. 9 School Board meeting.
The district’s Nov. 2 enrollment is 6,217 students, which is 112 students above the projection made in November 2014. Compared to actual enrollment of 5,891 students on Nov. 1, 2014, the district’s current enrollment is an increase of 326 students over last year, said Brandon Lunak, assistant superintendent of finance and operations.
The district’s largest grades are K-3, which are all above 500 students. Kindergarten is the largest with 570 students. The smallest grades are grades 10, 12 and 8, which are all below 450 students.
Lunak shared two options for projections — one based on a 550-student kindergarten class and the other based on the demographer’s projections from the study done last spring.
According to the projections using a 550-student kindergarten class each year for the next five years, the district will have 7,173 students by 2020-21. Using the smaller kindergarten class sizes in the demographer’s projections puts the district at 7,052 students in 2020-21.
The district will have capacity in its grade K-8 schools to accommodate the increase in students once projects approved in the Nov. 3 bond referendum are built, Lunak said.
K-4 enrollment increased from 2,409 students last year to 2,609 this year. The K-4 projections indicate 2,803 students by 2020-21. With the new grade configuration and new elementary school, the district will have capacity for around 3,000 K-4 students.
Grades 5-8 enrollment is 1,797 students and projections indicate 2,298 students by 2020-21. The grades 5-6 school addition to Horizon Middle School will give the campus a capacity of about 2,500 students.
Grades 9-12 is currently at 1,811 students and projections put enrollment at 1,951 with students at Moorhead High School and Red River Area Learning Center.
District administrators discussed working with the City of Moorhead and a demographer to make sure planning is done with the most accurate data available.
Categorized under: School