City Schools Decatur’s official K-12 enrollment reached an all-time high of 5,040. That’s an 8.1 percent increase over last year. The previous school year saw a 7.3 increase over 2014-15.
This means CSD added 379 new students, a number surpassing total enrollment in three of the district’s elementary schools. Indeed, according to Superintendent David Dude, the school system has added 350 to 400 new students every year since 2012.
Enrollment has nearly doubled since the 2009-10 year. Adding 7 to 12 percent each year since 09-10, cumulatively shakes out to an 87.6 percent increase over 2009-10’s enrollment of 2,687. Compare this with the city’s overall growth in the same duration, about 14 percent over the 2010 population of 19,335. City officials estimate the current population at 22,000 within Decatur’s 4.2 square miles.
“I’ve seen other districts with growth similar to ours,” Superintendent David Dude said Friday. “But in most of those places that growth can be easily absorbed. We are compact here, and our facilities aren’t entirely built.”
Dude has previously expressed frustration on not yet having projection numbers from Hilliard, Ohio firm DeJong-Richter. This means he has no feel for when this unprecedented growth will begin tapering off. He told the AJC last week the delay stems from waiting for correct data from DeKalb County and also figuring out a formula to predict accurate kindergarten counts.
In the seven years prior to this, kindergarten has doubled the senior class, according to Dude. That isn’t precisely the case this year though it’s close. Kindergarten enrollment is 447 or 43 percent higher than Decatur High’s senior class of 255, by far the system’s smallest class.
This year each class K through 5 has over 400 students.
Here’s an enrollment breakdown by school and class:
Clairemont Elementary-319; Glennwood Elementary-286; Oakhurst Elementary-460; Westchester Elementary-292; Winnona Park Elementary-434; 4/5 Academy at Fifth Avenue-883; Renfroe Middle-1122, Decatur High -1244.
Kindergarten-447; First-448; Second-458; Third-438; Fourth-454; Fifth-429; Sixth-391; Seventh-375; Eighth-356; Ninth-362; Tenth-337; Eleventh-290; Twelth-255
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