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MARSHALL -- Marshall Public Schools has seen some fluctuation in enrollment over the past year, but overall the district seemed to be holding steady, Superintendent Jeremy Williams said. At Monday's meeting of the Marshall School Board, Williams went over October enrollment data with board members.
"We often hear the question 'What does enrollment look like?' and it really depends on how you look at it," Williams said. "If we compare where we are right now to where we ended the last school year, we're up by 35 kids across the district. If you look at where we were October 1 a year ago, we're down 30 kids from then."
As of October. 1, MPS had a total of 2,534 students enrolled in kindergarten through 12th grade. On the same date in 2022, the district had 2,564 students enrolled. However, MPS ended the 2022-23 school year with a total enrollment of 2,499 students.
"Overall enrollment, I would say we're holding steady," Williams said.
Williams said MPS uses October 1 as the date for collecting the district's enrollment base for each school year. However, enrollment numbers can change over the course of the school year, as students and families move. When the state counts enrollment at the end of the school year, they also look at the amount of time those students were enrolled, he said.
"I get the question, where is everyone going? Well, it's not a consistent spot," Williams said of students who move away. For example, sometimes students who arrive in the school district are new to the country, and Marshall doesn't always end up being their permanent home, he said.
Williams presented fall enrollment data broken down by grade level, as well as by enrollment at each of MPS's school buildings. As of October 1, there were 341 students at Park Side Elementary; 531 students at Southview Elementary; 693 students at Marshall Middle School; 919 students at Marshall High School, and 50 students at MATEC. There were also a total of 211 early childhood students.
Some of the changes in enrollment at different school buildings were caused by differences in the size of class cohorts from year to year.
"Numbers are really big at the high school this year," Williams said. The enrollment of 919 high school students was an increase of 61 from the end of the 2022-23 school year, and an increase of 24 students from enrollment on Oct. 1, 2022.
On the other hand, enrollment at MMS was down this fall, due partly to some smaller classes. The current fifth grade class is one of the smaller ones in the district, Williams said.