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Enrollment slightly down at BEA

By Staff | Feb 14, 2016

There are fewer students walking through the halls of Blue Earth Area School this month as compared to the start of school last fall.

BEA Superintendent Evan Gough included an enrollment report during the weather-shortened BEA School Board meeting last Monday night.

In October, Gough had presented an enrollment report that had 1,177 students in kindergarten through 12th grade at BEA.

The number he reported last Monday was down 12, at 1,165.

“It is usual to have this kind of a little dip in enrollment from the start of a school year,” Gough told the board. “The principals report that most of the changes in enrollment was due to families moving out of the district.”

Families moving in and out of the district happens all year long, he added, but especially in the fall.

The biggest drop was in the senior class, which went from 98 last October to 91 now, a loss of seven students.

The second and seventh grades lost two students, fourth and ninth one each.

However, the junior class is up two students and sixth grade up one.

BEA’s largest class is the fifth grade, with 98 students. Other classes topping the 90 mark are kindergarten (92), second (90), fourth (93), sixth (95), seventh (93), 10th (92) and 12th (91).

The smallest class is the first grade, with 78 students.

Gough pointed out that the kindergarten currently has five sections, ranging in size from 17 to 20 students.

He said the administration will probably keep that class at five sections as they move to first grade, and that one of the current kindergarten teachers would move with the class and teach first grade next year.

The enrollment report showed that the highest enrollment in the past five years was in October 2012 when it was 1,220. It was also 1,219 in both 2013 and 2010.

In October 2014, enrollment stood at 1,210.