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Study: School enrollment to
drop, but area is 'very stable'
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| By:
JACQUELINE LANE, The Enterprise |
03/24/2006 | |
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BEAUMONT
- Enrollment in the Beaumont Independent School District is expected
to drop by about 900 students in the next five years, a demographic
study presented to trustees Thursday said.
Current
enrollment total used in the study is 19,551.
The
district-wide enrollment should go down by 374 in 2006-07. Smaller
declines of 161 students in 2007-08 and 268 the year after are
projected, the study estimates.
And after that, losses dip
sharply to 66 students in 2009-10 and only 33 in
2010-11.
"The population of Beaumont appears to be very
stable," said Arnold Oates, president of Texas School Planning, the
organization hired to do the study.
"The population in the
school district will be losing students a very, very small percent
in the next five years, but it's smaller each year."
However,
new housing developments in the area should help make up any losses,
he said.
"The bottom line is the picture for Beaumont is
pretty positive, I think," he said. "With economic development and
because gaining so many students back after (Hurricane Rita) ... so
I think that in itself is a very positive thing."
The study
was supposed to be presented in late 2005 but was delayed by
Hurricane Rita.
Researchers used four sets of student data,
including information from before and after Hurricane Rita and the
previous two years.
Pre-kindergarten through grade 12 data
was analyzed, said Talal "Trip" Albagdadi, director of marketing for
The Omega Group, who presented the study to trustees during their
board meeting.
Arnold said the firm used a combination of
existing data and interviews with city and chamber of commerce
officials, developers and the county appraisal
district.
Albagdadi said Regina, Fletcher and Sallie Curtis
elementary schools all are expected to grow in the next five
years.
Most of that increase is from projected development in
the area, Arnold said.
School board President Martha Hicks
said the study is consistent with the trends the district has
seen.
Superintendent Carrol Thomas said he didn't see any
major surprises, but said it gave the district more detail on what
officials already believed.
"I think we're going to get that
data and start to try to make some plans on what we should do with
it," he said.
"I think we would use that information for
planning the next step as far as the bond issue is
concerned."
jlane@beaumontenterprise.com
(409)
833-3311, ext. 420
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| ©The Beaumont
Enterprise 2006 |
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