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Enrollment Falls In County
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Britton-Hecla Elementary Principal Shad Storley greeted students as they prepared to enter the building for their first day of classes on Thursday. Total students in the school district numbered 487, down 20 from a year ago.
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Britton-Hecla and Langford Schools, along with the attendance center at Veblen, all showed decreases in enrollment this fall.
Student numbers at Britton-Hecla took the biggest drop, falling 20 students from 507 to 487 this fall. Langford fell four students from 205 to 201, while Veblen, which is part of the Sisseton School district, dropped from 45 to 40.
The decreases are part of an ongoing trend among rural school districts in South Dakota. Typically, schools graduate more seniors than are replaced by the following year's kindergarten classes, resulting in a continued enrollment decline.
Last year Britton-Hecla graduated 38 seniors that were replaced by just 19 kindergartners this fall - a net loss of 19 students. Langford graduated 22 seniors with 16 kindergartners, resulting in a net loss of six. The school still experienced a decline in spite of the fact that the kindergarten class is the largest in the past eight years.
A further look at the numbers shows that the trend will very likely continue. This fall Britton-Hecla has a total of 86 students at the first four grade levels K-3. That compares to 168 in the upper four grades. Langford has 45 students in the first four grades this year with 66 in the upper four grade levels.
Students at Hutterite colonies have also affected numbers in each district. Britton-Hecla includes 62 students at Sunset and Westwood Colonies in its totals, and Langford has 26 students from Newport Colony.
Sunset students number 39 in the elementary and 14 that are taking high school courses. Westwood has a total of nine elementary students. Westwood was established northwest of Britton three years ago and includes students that were formerly part of the Newport Colony in the Langford School District.
Britton-Hecla Superintendent Don Kirkegaard said that without students from the Hutterite colonies, the reorganization with Hecla, and open enrollment from area schools, the local district would be at an all-time low. He said about 40 members of the current student body have open enrolled from other districts.
The lowest student number in recent history at the Britton School was 461 in 1988, and the school didn't start counting students from Sunset Colony until 1997. If the colony students and open enrolled students were subtracted from this year's enrollment total, the school would have just 385 students to begin the 2008-2009 school year.
Kirkegaard had not anticipated quite as big a drop in enrollment this year due to the fact that the district picked up 14 students through open enrollment this fall, primarily from the Veblen area.
"We thought the numbers would still be down a little bit, but we had a few more students move out of the district than we had anticipated," he said.
Langford actually bucked the trend of declining enrollment a year ago, showing an increase of nine students over the previous year. But the total student numbers have decreased from 247 in 2001, which included eight more Newport Colony students, to the 201 total this year.
The breakdown by classes at Britton-Hecla this fall includes 19 kindergartners (which includes 16 boys and just three girls), 19 first graders, 24 second graders, 24 third graders, 24 fourth graders, 31 fifth graders, and 30 sixth graders for an elementary total of 172.
There are 43 seventh graders, 42 eighth graders, 42 freshmen, 45 sophomores, 45 juniors, and 36 seniors for a 253 total. The high school totals do not include the Sunset students.
At Langford there are 16 kindergartners, nine first graders, 10 second graders, 10 third graders, 10 fourth graders, eight fifth graders, and 11 sixth graders for a 74-student total.
The upper grades have 18 seventh graders, 17 eighth graders, 14 freshmen, 14 sophomores, 21 juniors, and 17 seniors for a 101 total.
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©Marshall County Journal 2009
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