Enrollment at the Eastern Pulaski School District appears to be down slightly from last year.
Superintendent Dan Foster told the school board Monday that a preliminary count shows 1269 students enrolled in the district. The official count will be taken tomorrow. While this is actually a higher figure than that of last year at this time, this is the first year kindergarten students are counted as one student and not one-half. Foster says that figures out to an actual decrease of 12 students, and that means a decrease in funding of about $60,000, “What do you do differently now that you’re $60,000 less? Nothing. I mean, those 12 kids didn’t all come out of kindergarten that now we close a classroom and we don’t need a teacher, so overhead doesn’t change.”
He says funding is projected to be down nearly $900 per student from what it was during the 2012-2013 school year.
Also during Monday’s meeting, no comments were offered during a public hearing on the 2016 budget, the capital plan for the next two years, and the plan for bus replacements through 2027. Additionally, Foster said he hadn’t gotten any phone calls or e-mails from the public since the items had been advertised.
