Appleton sees more elementary school students move from virtual school back to in-person learning, and slight increase in overall enrollment
APPLETON - After losing more than 900 students during the pandemic, the Appleton Area School District saw enrollment tick up slightly this year.
According to data collected by the state Department of Public Instruction, there are 15,184 students enrolled in AASD this school year — an increase of 37 students. The number of students in grades one through 12 fell by a few students, but there was overall growth because of increases in kindergarten and 4K.
These numbers differ slightly from those presented by Superintendent Greg Hartjes at a school board meeting last week. According to Hartjes, there are 15,238 students in the district this year, up 52 over last year. Hartjes explained that the numbers can change daily as students move in and out of the district or need to take extended absences for medical or other reasons.
Regardless, this still leaves the district smaller than it was in 2018, when enrollment was more than 16,200 students.
Unlike Appleton, statewide enrollment in K-12 public schools continued to decline, with 807,657 students enrolled this year. That’s about 40,000 fewer students than there were in 2018.
The unaudited enrollment data released last week by DPI shows increases in other forms of schooling such as independent charter schools and state-funded vouchers. However, it doesn't include information on students who pay tuition at private schools or are homeschooled — which grew by about 10,000 students during the pandemic.
More: Fox Cities, Oshkosh schools improve on test scores, but still trail pre-pandemic scores
Second highest open enrollment numbers ever
In his presentation to the board last week, Hartjes said this year is the second highest ever for open enrollment.
DPI didn’t release open enrollment data or breakdowns by each grade and school to the public yet, but Hartjes provided the following numbers in his presentation to the board.
Almost 1,850 students open enrolled into the Appleton district this year, second only to 2020 when a large number of students open enrolled to attend Appleton’s virtual school, Wisconsin Connections Academy.
“The number of students is certainly good news,” Hartjes said in response to a comment from a board member about increased enrollment helping the district’s operating budget.
“We want students enrolling into our district because we have a lot of overhead costs that don’t increase with an increase in the number of students.”
The enrollment growth was spread fairly evenly across the district, Hartjes said. There was an increase of five to 15 students at each elementary school, and kindergarten was back to being over 1,000 students after being in the 900s for the past two years.
This year also saw more elementary students move from an online learning option back to in-person learning. But the opposite is true for middle and high school, where in-person enrollment went down and virtual enrollment increased by almost 100 students.
Charter schools in the district also saw enrollment bounce back. Hartjes said those schools saw more enrollment losses during the pandemic than traditional neighborhood schools.
What does enrollment look like in other Fox Valley school districts
Like Appleton, other districts in the Fox Valley saw relatively minor shifts in enrollment compared with the past couple of years. Most of them moved by no more than 50 students in either direction, and some saw a change of fewer than 10 students.
In general, districts are trending downward from where they were five years ago. Only the Hortonville Area School District and the Kaukauna Area School District have more students now than they did in 2018. Kaukauna and the Neenah Joint school districts were the only ones to see enrollment increases from last year to this year.
Here’s a look at enrollment headcounts in other Fox Valley districts this year compared with the previous year.
Hortonville Area School District
4,260, a decrease of 47
Kaukauna Area School District
4,050, an increase of 45
Kimberly Area School District
5,121, a decrease of 46
Little Chute Area School District
1,580, a decrease of 52
Menasha Joint School District
3,160, a decrease of eight
Neenah Joint School District
6,520, an increase of six
Reach AnnMarie Hilton at ahilton@gannett.com or 920-370-8045. Follow her on Twitter at @hilton_annmarie.
This article originally appeared on Appleton Post-Crescent: Appleton school district sees slight increase in enrollment
