SHULLSBURG—Enrollment dropped below estimates for the third Friday count at Shullsburg School District.
District administrator Loras Kruser said the count on Sept. 16 was 353 students, or 341 full time equivalency students when the part-time preschool students are factored in. That figure is nine fewer than the estimates last month and 12 fewer than last year.
Kruser said he found it interesting how 19 students were new to the district this year and 22 moved out of the district due to family moving either to neighboring communities outside the district or across the nation.
“You figure that there are 353 kids in the school and you’ve got 41 of them transitioning either in or out,” Kruser said. “That’s a fairly significant percentage if you’re from the student population. There are a lot of people on the move.”
Kruser said there are fewer than 100 students in the high school.
“The harsh reality for us is our numbers in the high school, we’re under 100 kids, and it’s not going to be above 100 for a while,” Kruser said. “Our staffing level at that end of the building has remained somewhat steady and fairly constant for a number of years, but I think that will be one area that we probably will have to take a look at in the future. We’ll have to justify having multiple teachers for the individual subject areas for that number of students.”
The board made no decisions on student enrollment or staffing.