The fall Average Daily Membership count that was conducted at North Judson-San Pierre on September 13th was discussed during the most recent school board meeting.
Superintendent Dr. Annette Zupin noted that while the official results are still being finalized, preliminary findings showed that they’re down about 20 students.
She indicated that, unfortunately, a decrease in enrollment is common for many small-town schools these days but NJ-SP is actively working to be the best that they can be to an appealing option.
She explained, “We will continue to work on programs and just creating a very positive school so that students from other areas may want to come but the truth of the matter is that we’re rural America and we’re struggling like everybody is,”
Zupin continued, “but we’re still going to work hard to maybe recruit a few students from other schools and we do that by offering programs and being positive and just being a solid school for people.”
Dr. Zupin also touched on the fact that once the ADM count in winter showed a decline, they anticipated fewer students and were able to match staffing to enrollment so there is still a balanced student to teacher ratio.
She added that when the budget was created, school officials made sure not to overestimate so the figures presented in for 2020 are in line with the number of students reflected during the most recent ADM count.
