After more than seven years of enrollment jumps, the Jackson School District is facing the possibility of no growth or even a decrease this year.

Meanwhile, its neighboring school district to the east, Cape Girardeau, broke a long string of enrollment decreases with an increase of 18 students so far.

Over the past 10 years, Jackson has enjoyed an average fall enrollment growth of 3 percent. Preliminary data from this year's enrollment has the district at 4,637 students, down 20 from the 2001 official enrollment of 4,657.

Superintendent Dr. Ron Anderson attributed the biggest part of the downfall to a 60-student decrease in this year's kindergarten enrollment.

"There's really no explanation for a decrease like that. It's just one of those things that happens from time to time," Anderson said.

Despite the preliminary numbers, he said the district may still see a gain, although classes began Aug. 21.

"Just this week we've had around six additional students enroll, and we think there may be more enrolling before our final count in the third week of September," Anderson said. "By then, I really believe we'll have met or slightly exceeded last year's enrollment."

However, Anderson said the final count will most likely fall short of the enrollment projected earlier this year by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. Looking at past enrollment trends at Jackson, DESE predicted a fall enrollment of 4,718.

Cape moves up

In the Cape Girardeau School District, after more than six years of enrollment decreases, preliminary numbers for fall 2002 reflect an enrollment increase of 18 students from last year's official counts. The district's first day of school was Sept. 3, but already the enrollment is at 4,004, exceeding last year's official count of 3,986 and DESE's projected 3,948.

The district's growth took place solely in the secondary grades, while the elementary count remained the same as 2001 numbers.

Superintendent Mark Bowles said enrollment in grades 7-12 went from 1,973 in last year's initial count to 2,034 this year.

Bowles said the increases at the junior and senior high schools may be due in part to students interested in the new state-of-the-art Central High School and the district's reconfiguration of grades this year.

The reconfiguration established a new Central Middle School for fifth and sixth graders, moved seventh and eighth graders into Central Junior High and bumped ninth graders up to Central High School.

"Now that we've restructured grades, some people are bringing their children over from parochial schools at seventh grade, rather than waiting until ninth grade as has been the case in the past," Bowles said.

Whatever the cause, Bowles said the enrollment increase will mean additional money for the district through the state's average daily attendance funding.

Bowles said the school receives around $800 per student annually in such funding.

"After years of decreases, it's great to finally see an increase," he said.

Both Bowles and Anderson stressed that the current numbers are only preliminary. Official fall enrollment numbers won't be collected until later this month, when schools are required to turn the information over to DESE.

cchitwood@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 128OAK RIDGE SCHOOL DISTRICT

2002 378

2001 384

2000 377

1999 346

1998 327CHAFFEE SCHOOL DISTRICT

2002 601

2001 575

2000 590

1999 621

1998 606JACKSON SCHOOL DISTRICT

2002 4,637

2001 4,657

2000 4,594

1999 4,485

1998 4,334CAPE GIRARDEAU

SCHOOL DISTRICT

2002 4,004

2001 3,986

2000 4,031

1999 4,072

1998 4,227PERRY COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT

2002 2,279

2001 2,246

2000 2,235

1999 2,195

1998 2,257SCOTT CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT

2002 1,013

2001 1,016

2000 1,084

1999 1,033

1998 1,030