Waukee Ranks as Top Iowa School District for Enrollment Gain This Year

Waukee schools gained more students from the last school year to the current school year than any district in the state, according to a report released today by the Iowa Department of Education.

The certified enrollment report said the number of students who enrolled in Iowa’s public schools for the 2012-13 school year increased significantly from the year before. This is the first significant enrollment increase for Iowa’s public schools in 17 years, although overall enrollment has declined over the past five years. Enrollment peaked in the 1972-73 school year, with 645,000 students.

In Waukee, the district has 7,721 students enrolled currently, an increase of 610 children from the 2011-12 school year's enrollment of 7,111. Right behind Waukee was the Des Moines district, which gained 516 students this year, then the Ankeny district with an increase of 422 pupils this year.

The rate of growth is nothing new for the Waukee district. According to the state, over the past five school years Waukee has seen a 29 percent enrollment increase, from 5,967 students to the current 7,721.

To keep pace with the growth, the district has been building schools or adding on to existing schools nearly continuously. Next fall, Woodland Hills Elementary School will open in West Des Moines to ease overcrowding in the lower grades, and an old school will come out of mothballs for use. An 8/9 grade building is in the works to open in two years.

Other stories on Waukee Schools growth:

Waukee School Board Approves Boundary Changes at Monday Meeting

Old Waukee Elementary School Gets a New Name

Waukee's New 8/9 Building Gets a Name

Old Waukee Elementary School to Reopen With Improvements for the 2013-14 School Year

PHOTO TOUR: Waukee High School Addition Ready for First Day of School

A total of 476,245 students in kindergarten through 12^th grade enrolled in public schools statewide in the 2012-13 school year. That represents an increase of 0.6 percent, or 2,741 students, from the 2011-12 school year. The growth is mostly in Iowa's urban and suburban districts, while the rural parts of the state continue to lose enrollment.

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The statewide enrollment increase is due in part to an upsurge in birth rates from 2003 to 2008, the release said. Birth rates spiked in 2007 but have decreased in recent years.

“This statewide increase is refreshing news for Iowa after years of declining enrollment. However, the reality is that this increase most likely is temporary,” said Jay Pennington, chief of the Iowa Department of Education’s Bureau of Information and Analysis. “We see pockets of enrollment growth in the urban and suburban areas of the state, while the long-term trends show rural areas continue to experience declining enrollment,” Pennington said.

About half of Iowa’s 348 school districts reported an enrollment increase, while the other half reported a decrease in enrollment from the year before. 

West Sioux, Moulton-Udell and Waukee reported the largest one-year percentage increases of 10 percent for West Sioux, and 9 percent for both Waukee and Moulton-Udell.