Area schools show an enrollment decline

HARTINGTON — All but one Cedar County school system showed enrollment declines when students returned to classes last week.
Combined enrollment figures for 2011-12 in all of the schools across Cedar County are down 65 students from last year.

Holy Trinity/Cedar Catholic is the only school in the county to see an increase in students. The Hartington parochial school system is up by three students since last year.
The enrollment for West Catholic School,  Fordyce, and East Catholic, Bow Valley, stayed close to the same.
Randolph and Hartington Public Schools show the largest drop in students from last year.
Randolph has dropped by 19 students since last year, while Hartington has a decrease of 14 students.
According to Principal Russ Flamig 28 seniors graduated from HPS last spring and there were only 20 kindergarten students enrolled this fall.
The rest of the loss occurred as families moved in and out of the district.
Laurel-Concord student enrollment numbers only dropped by seven.
Supt. Rich Patton is hoping the enrollment numbers will stay steady over the next few years at Laurel-Concord.
“I anticipate they will hold fairly even at Laurel in the next years based on census data,” said Patton. “Laurel has a good and an attractive school.”
Coleridge and Wynot Schools have both seen a decline in numbers: Coleridge is down by 15 students and Wynot has 13 fewer  students.
The 2011-12 enrollment for Cedar Catholic/Holy Trinity is at 390 – last year’s enrollment was 387. The figures include 32 pre-school students for this year and 35 for last year.
West Catholic School has 27 students and 52 students are enrolled at East Catholic for the 2011-12 school year.
This year there are 246 students at Hartington Public, while last year’s figure was 260.
Randolph has 263 students enrolled so far this year – there were 282 students at the school last year.
Hartington and Randolph Schools do not offer a pre-school education in their school system.
Wynot’s K-12 enrollment for this year is 145 – last year the number was 158. Wynot School has five children in pre-school this year.
Laurel-Concord School has 313 students in K-12 this year while the enrollment last year was at 320.
The pre-school at Laurel-Concord includes 25 Laurel-Concord students and four Coleridge pre-school students.

The Coleridge School has 90 students enrolled this year – the number last year was 105.
Twenty-eight of the Coleridge high school students, along with 32 students in K-4 attend classes at the Laurel-Concord location this year.
Eighty-five Laurel-Concord students join up with 30 Coleridge students in grades fourth – eighth at the Middle School located in Coleridge.