R-BB likely to see steady growth in enrollment over coming years, demographic study finds

ELLETTSVILLE — Edgewood schools will likely see a slow but steady increase in student enrollment in the coming years.

The Richland-Bean Blossom Community School Corp. recently finished a demographic study of the corporation and Ellettsville that analyzed data such as enrollment, county and district population and annual births in the past decade as well as approved housing developments that will be built in the next few years to project how the corporation will grow.

The study was presented to the R-BB school board Monday by Matt Kinghorn, a demographic analyst at the Indiana Business Research Center at the Indiana University Kelley School of Business.

R-BB Superintendent Jerry Sanders said the data provided reassurance that the corporation won’t have to rush to accommodate an explosion of students.

“That was my worry, was that we were not going to be able to build schools fast enough,” he said. “I think we can see here that we have steady growth but not overwhelming. ... We won't have to rush.”

Although the corporation as a whole will see steady growth, certain grades such as preschool and kindergarten will likely see significant growth in the next year or two, Kinghorn said.

Right now, preschool, kindergarten and eighth grade are the three largest class sizes at R-BB. Preschool and kindergarten enrollment is higher than it’s been in the past decade, he said.

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Preschool and kindergarten enrollment growth prompted the corporation to use school bonds to build a new preschool, the Edgewood Early Childhood Center, and it has plans to build another preschool facility in a few years.

The board also discussed using flexible spaces, such as the new Edgewood Innovative Learning Center, as classrooms if the corporation begins to feel squeezed.

While preschool and kindergarten enrollment will likely grow in the next few years, it may drop off in five years due to a decline in births in the county. Between 2015 and 2021, the county experienced a 23% decline in annual births, the study showed.

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Construction around Ellettsville will likely bring more students into the corporation, Kinghorn said. About 400 single family residential lots are currently approved for future development in Richland and Bean Blossom townships. On average, for every two houses in the area, there is one student.

“If we have a good idea that there’s going to be 400 units, then we have a pretty good idea of what that will mean in terms of future students,” Kinghorn said.

Cook Group also plans to build between 80 and 90 houses in Owen County, which was not included in the study because it is outside the district's boundaries, but that development could still bring new students to R-BB, Sanders said.

The study did not, however, include factors such as school choice. Other schools — such as Monroe County’s two charter schools, Seven Oaks Classical School in Ellettsville and Bloomington’s Project School — are options students living in R-BB's district can choose instead of attending an Edgewood school.

Data from the Indiana Department of Education shows enrollment at Seven Oaks has grown every year since it opened in 2016. Since the school opened, total student enrollment has grown from 161 to 483, partially due to adding grades. The Project School has also seen gradual growth throughout the past five years.

Contact Christine Stephenson at cstephenson@heraldt.com.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Edgewood schools likely to experience slow, steady enrollment growth