Libertyville School District 70 Enrollment Drops for Eighth Year in a Row

Submission by Libertyville Elementary School District 70

For the eighth year in a row, enrollment has dipped within Libertyville Elementary School District 70.

Sixth day enrollment figures for Libertyville School District 70 showed a slight 3.1 percent drop from last year’s sixth day numbers. Enrollment for District 70 reached 2,359 students on Sept. 1, compared to 2,433 students a year ago, which is a decrease of 74 students. Sixth day enrollment figures are used every year as the data is reported to the State of Illinois.

“The overall decrease in students cannot be attributed to any one thing, and looks to be a mixture of standard attrition, significantly less mobility as the economy works to recover, and reportedly lower birth rates,” Supt. Dr. Guy Schumacher said when reviewing enrollment data. “As a result of various anomalies, including slight growth in some sites with diminishing registration at others, we are researching demographics to try to better predict future enrollment calculations.”

Only Adler Park School, District 70’s smallest school, saw a slight increase in enrollment this year. Enrollment increased by 0.8 percent with 242 students this year compared to 240 students a year ago. Adler Park saw an 8 percent enrollment drop last year, attributed to moving a full-day kindergarten class to Copeland Manor so that every school offered full-day kindergarten classes as an option. District 70 moved to full-day kindergarten this year, offering half-day only as an option.

The largest enrollment decrease came for Butterfield School, the district’s largest elementary school, with a 5.3 percent drop to 494 students compared to 520 students a year ago. The calculations do not include SEDOL programming, or the 14 Early Childhood students who are housed at Butterfield School this year. Early Childhood was moved from Adler Park School this summer.

“Reviewing six-day enrollment allows us to see enrollment trends from year-to-year and over a span of a couple of years,” said Erik Youngman, District 70’s director of curriculum, instruction and assessment. “However, the difference of a few students in a grade level at each school impacts the number of classroom teachers that are needed. A critical number is the number of new students which is 126 this year compared to 154 last year.”

Highland Middle School also saw a drop of 4.2 percent to 912 students compared to 951 students a year ago. Enrollment at Highland has decreased in all grade levels this year. But the school’s enrollment can swing high and low as Highland Middle School’s enrollment topped out at 979 in 2011-12 but was at a low of 909 students two years earlier in 2008-09.

The district’s oldest school, Rockland, also saw a drop of 1.7 percent with 289 students this year compared to 294 students last year. Using enrollment figures from five years ago, Rockland’s enrollment has dropped about 11.1 percent.

Copeland Manor School saw the smallest drop in a decrease of 1.4 percent with 422 students compared to 428 students a year ago. Looking at enrollment figures from five years ago though, Copeland Manor enrollment has increased almost 5 percent.

This year’s enrollment figures for the district do not include 17 out-of-district students enrolled in the Special Education District of Lake County classes at Butterfield School, or 19 out-placed students who reside within District 70 boundaries.

Other interesting facts seen in the first week of school for District 70 include the impressive number of students where their home language is something other than English. This year, 293 students come from homes where 38 different languages are spoken.

This year, District 70 welcomed 180 kindergartners compared to 205 a year ago.

Unfortunately, data also shows a large jump in homeless students, going to 12 students from only five students last year.