By Kathy Chaffin
kchaffin@salisburypost.com
Tuesday’s 10-day enrollment figures showed 423 fewer students in the Rowan-Salisbury School System than on the 10th day last year.
Total enrollment Tuesday was 20,499 as compared to 20,922 last year. Rita Foil, public information officer for the system, declined to comment on the difference until this year’s numbers could be confirmed.
The school system switched from the Student Information Management System used to calculate enrollment last year to the N.C. Windows of Information for Student Education program this year, and Foil has said there have been some glitches in the switchover.
Tuesday’s enrollment was down 280 students from the 20,779 enrollment projected by Rowan-Salisbury officials going into this year. Foil attributed the projected decrease of 124 students to the deadline for children entering kindergarten being changed from Oct. 15 to Aug. 31, which requires students turning 5 from Aug. 31 through Oct. 15 to have to wait until next year to start.
In the Kannapolis City Schools, Tuesday’s 10th-day enrollment was 5,117, down 60 students from the 5,177 enrollment on the 10th day last year, according to Community Relations Director Ellen Boyd. She also attributed the decrease to the change in the kindergarten deadline.
Kannapolis school officials had projected an enrollment of 5,200, 83 more than reported on Tuesday. “Typically, it does go up,” Boyd said, “even sometimes past the 10th day. The enrollment keeps going up day after day. It’s hard to say exactly why that is.”
Enrollment figures are based on the number of students enrolled in the school systems and do not reflect any absences.
The N.C. Department of Public Instruction bases its per-student allocations on the highest of the average daily enrollment for the first two months of school.
Contact Kathy Chaffin at 704-797-4249.