Putnam Enrollment Numbers Down For VITAL School Program

Putnam County School System seeing about a 2.1 percent decrease in enrollment compared to this time last year.

Attendance Supervisor Chris Pierce said that equates to about 261 students. He said it is both surprising because the system typically sees about a two percent gain each year. Pierce said the most significant difference in this year’s enrollment is the number of virtual enrollments through the VITAL program.

“These enrollments are characterized generally by elementary homeschool families who decide to use our district-chosen online curriculum,” Pierce said. “And some of these families have chosen to go another route with their enrollment this year.”

Pierce said enrollment numbers typically stabilize somewhat as the system goes through the month of September. He said they expect to slowly climb to a peak in December.

“The only over-capacity issue we are currently experiencing is at the Upperman High School campus,” Pierce said. “However, construction on a school addition project should alleviate that concern once it is finished later this year. All other schools are running with the capacity to accommodate new families moving into the school zone.”

Pierce said that is a result of families moving in and it is typically the migration pattern of new residents.

“And a lot of families who move in, where they’re from school doesn’t start until after Labor Day,” Pierce said.”So we do experience a little bit of a bump in September through October and then a normal migration pattern kicks in.”

Pierce said then in the spring semester, the early graduates will leave the building and the system will see a decline in enrollment numbers once again.