Manhattan-Ogden USD 383’s unofficial enrollment numbers are better than expected considering last year’s 300 student decrease from the year before.
Assistant Superintendent Eric Reid says last year’s drop hurt the district’s five year average. Funding tied to enrollment will be something the district will have to watch in the near future.
Reid says the district can also use the federal ESSER funds from COVID to help recover some of the losses. When it comes to redistricting, none of the elementary schools are up and the middle schools have increased. This is due to 6th grade moving up to the middle school level.
The Sept. 20 count was 6,288 compared to 6,143 last year. Enrollment was 6,451 two years ago. It comes as the redistricting also occurred over the summer with the addition of Oliver Brown Elementary. Assistant Superintendent Eric Reid says transfers were handled this year as they typically are in previous years.
Reid says, because of redistricting, the district was expecting more transfer requests at the elementary level. Last year, they saw an increase in fifth grade level transfer requests. For this year, the district granted around 70 percent of the requests.
Elsewhere, some of the smaller area districts, including USD 378 Riley County, USD 384 Blue Valley, USD 320 Wamego and USD 323 Rock Creek have reported enrollment increases over the past year.
