Everett School District officials said Tuesday they are pleased with the result of their annual enrollment count.
The district initially projected 17,295.69 full-time equivalent students would be enrolled on the fouth day of the 2003-04 school year; the actual enrollment as of Sept. 8 was 17,277.3.
Though the actual enrollment is lower than projected, that is good news for the district, officials said.
“This won’t require us to make a lot of adjustments, and that’s good,” associate superintendent Jeff Riddle said. “Our staffing should be pretty well set … and it means our revenue should be what we planned.”
The fourth-day count is the main factor in determining how much state funding a district will receive for that year.
For each full-time equivalent (FTE) student, the district receives a little more than $4,000 per year from the state. Additional funding is provided for individual programs including special education and bilingual students.
However, the state funds public school districts by their projected enrollment during the months of September to January. After that, districts receive funding monthly based on their average enrollment up to that point.
If a district’s projected enrollment is much higher than their actual enrollment, they can face large budget cuts.
While enrollment numbers may fluctuate in the next few months, district officials said they feel confident that their 2003-04 budget will remain unchanged.
“The first two weeks is a pretty good predictor of what will happen for the rest of year,” Riddle said. “And we’ll be pretty close to that number based on what we’ve seen so far.”
Even though enrollment is still lower than it has been in the past, officials said this year’s fourth day results are a positive way to start out the school year.
“We hope those students and many more will remain in our system through graduation,” superintendent Carol Whitehead said.
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