'Astronomic' Marblehead Enrollment Twist For New School Year

MARBLEHEAD, MA — Enrollment in Marblehead Public Schools reversed course this school year — increasing "astronomically" — after years of declines.

The Marblehead School Committee happily announced a 14.4 percent increase in kindergarten students and about a 5 percent in enrollment overall during Monday night's Committee meeting.

"It's what I've been screaming from the rooftops for years now saying is going to happen," Marblehead School Committee Chair Sarah Fox said.

Superintendent John Buckey said it was an "astronomically" increased enrollment this year and that the district had an increase in every grade level except grades 4 and 10.

"We're fortunate that we have the staffing that we do," Buckey said. "And that we did not make any reduction in staffing to be able to accommodate such a surge like this in a short period of time."

The surprising shift in the enrollment trend comes just two months after years of declining enrollment was one reason opponents cited against a $3 million general tax override to fund a supplemental budget — which was overwhelmingly defeated in a townwide vote.

"This is going to come into play a lot as we talk about budgeting and where we are looking at things," Fox said. "This really changes the dialogue. Because the dialogue we've heard through every budget cycle the last however-many years is that we have declining enrollment, declining enrollment, and the projections showed the continuance of that decline.

"Obviously, projections are helpful and they are a very useful tool. But this data is very real and is going to have to be factored into budgeting. We are going to have to keep pushing out to the community that we've seen the increase. We've built the new schools. If you built it, they will come.

"And now we have these numbers."

Buckey said hiring continues on the eve of the school year.

He said a small number of teaching and administrative positions remained open as of the start of the week — and that classroom coverage has been arranged in those cases — with the majority of openings in the areas of paraprofessionals and food services.

"No one seems panicked about hiring at this point," Buckey said. "As you look at some of our neighboring districts, and some of the emails that are going across the superintendents' lists today, there are districts in some far worse positions with some really critical openings that they still have."

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)