Elementary Enrollment Highest in Years in Roseville Area Schools

The schools are full of kids again in Roseville School District 623.

“Kindergarten enrollment is the highest it’s been since Jimmy Carter was president, and overall enrollment matches Ronald Reagan’s era,” Superintendent John Thein told the Roseville Area School Board Tuesday.

Enrollment at the elementary level increased 6 percent over the past 12 months, from 3,452 to 3,652, assistant superintendent Joe Wemette told the board.  Overall enrollment in Roseville Area schools has increased 3.6 percent.

The increase in the seventh and eighth grades, from 994 to 1003 students, is less than 1 percent, while the increase in the ninth through 12th grades, from 2,283 to 2,317 totals 1.5 percent.

Wemette said the district has added staff where necessary to keep class sizes the same at the elementary level. Class sizes in grades K-6 average 25.27, roughly the same as last year. 

But preliminary data indicates that four K-3 classrooms – two at Central Park Elementary and two at Edgerton Elementary– have more than 30 students per teacher.

Nine classrooms for the fourth through sixth grades have more than 30 students: all six sections for grades 5-6 at Brimhall; one fifth-grade class at Little Canada and two fourth-grade sections at Emmet D. Williams Elementary.   The district provides teaching assistants for elementary grades with large class sizes.

Intermediate and high school classes average 31 per teacher, but staffing ratios (which consider counselors and other professional support staff) reduce that figure to 22.27 for grades 7-8 and 25.99 for grades 9-12.

Wemette stressed that the enrollment counts are inflated.  “We know how many kids are coming in, but we don’t know how many are leaving,” he said.  He will present a final report to the board in October.