The Knox Community School Corporation’s enrollment continues to drop.
The average daily membership count dropped by 22 students from September to February, according to Superintendent Dr. William Reichhart. “That’s not real good to report,” he told the school board Wednesday. “In fact, we now broke the 1,700 mark, so we’re down to 1,694. So that’s not good news, because we were at, a year ago, like 1,757.”
In all, Reichhart said more than 160 students transferred into or out of the school corporation since September. “And they went all over,” he added. “I mean, I can show you the report. They go from Texas, moving out to Texas or coming in from Texas. North Judson comes in; North Judson goes out. Oregon-Davis comes in; Oregon-Davis goes back out again. Some go to virtual; some come back from virtual. Some are home-schooled; some come back from home school.”
Reichhart said all of that movement may be an indicator of the economic impact COVID-19 is having on families. “A lot of parents are in transition, and I’m guessing that because of the financial situation of COVID, that some families can’t stay in their homes because they were paying rent and they lost their jobs,” Reichhart said. “So you see more transient than I think we’ve seen before.”
The 22-student drop will cost Knox Schools more than $71,000 in lost Education Fund money from the state, according to Treasurer Kasey Clark. On the other hand, Reichhart told board members that the school corporation was allocated more than $1.5 million as part of the latest federal stimulus. He said he’ll present some ideas on how to spend it in the future, but some eligible uses are PPE and certain salaries.
