Two months into the school year, City Schools Decatur’s K-12 enrollment has reached an all-time high of 5,328, a 5.5 percent increase over 2016-17’s year-ending 5,036. School systems don’t file official numbers with the state until October, but Superintendent David Dude shared early unofficial counts with the AJC Friday.
The district has more than doubled over the past decade, compared to 2007-08’s official count of 2,473. From 2009 to last year K-12 enrollment increased anywhere from 7 to 12 percent per year. But Dude isn’t yet ready to announce that growth is diminishing.
“That [5.5] percentage may be an early indicator that growth is finally leveling off,” he said. “But still we have [292] students over last year which is basically the size of one elementary school (Glennwood Elementary has 291 students).”
Dude added that the district’s using each school’s “capacity to the fullest,” which include eight buildings and 30 temporary or modular units. The goal, with current and future construction, is to meet capacity with entirely permanent classrooms by the 2020-21 school year. This includes a new school on Talley Street, with construction scheduled to begin next February.
This year’s senior class is by far the smallest at 264. All grades, K-9, excepting the eighth, are over 400. A total 3,393 students, or 63.7 percent are white, with 1,141 or 21.4 percent black. The remaining 14.9 percent include Hispanic/Latino, Asian, Hawaiian and those with two or more races.
Here’s an enrollment breakdown by school and class:
Clairemont Elementary-319; Glennwood Elementary-291; Oakhurst Elementary-485; Westchester Elementary-298; Winnona Park Elementary-442; 4/5 Academy at Fifth Avenue-901; Renfroe Middle-1252, Decatur High -1340.
Kindergarten-437; First-476; Second-451; Third-471; Fourth-458; Fifth-443; Sixth-453; Seventh-408; Eighth-391; Ninth-413; Tenth-339; Eleventh-324; Twelth-264
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