The West Central School Corporation continues to lower its expectations for next school year’s enrollment.
Following last month’s kindergarten roundup, Superintendent Don Street is now projecting an enrollment of 769 students. “We had 33 students for kindergarten enrollment. We have 66 students in our senior class,” he says. “So our enrollment – we are projecting to drop a little bit.”
Street says West Central is faced with a declining population in the local area, with the population now down to roughly where it was a century ago. “The number of people that reside in the West Central School District based upon township populations is approximately 5,000 people,” he explains. “And the difference between now and in the early 1900s, based upon the census data, is that the population is older. The median age is in the 40s now, as compared to what is was in 1910, 1920, where it was a much younger age.”
The West Central School Corporation lost 20 students between September of 2016 and February 2017.
