Schools buck trend in student enrollment
While urban school districts across the state wonder where their students are, Citrus County enrollment has exceeded expectations by more than 100 students.
By EDDY RAMIREZ
Published September 25, 2006
INVERNESS - More students showed up for school in Citrus County this year than at any point in the past four years, bringing the district's total enrollment to 16,025.
The count, taken after Labor Day, represents a 1.2 percent increase over last year when there were 189 fewer students, according to enrollment figures.
"We're not in a big school district, so just a few students could really impact our system," said Chuck Dixon, who helps track student enrollment for the district. He noted that while the increase appears modest, it topped the district's projection. Officials had anticipated 77 fewer students to arrive this fall.
The higher enrollment in Citrus runs counter to a trend in the state's urban school districts where fewer students than expected showed up for school this year.
Fast-growing Hillsborough expected 5,000 more students this year, but had only 1,100 more by the first week of school.
Pinellas saw a decline of 1,724 students from last year.
The loss of students in large urban districts has school officials wondering whether the poorest students' families may be fleeing to more affordable areas of the state at a time of soaring home prices and homeowners insurance costs.
"It could be a cost-of-living thing," Tom Moore of Broward County schools recently told the Miami Herald. Broward school officials were surprised when they learned that after decades of growth the district lost more than 8,300 students this year.
"A lot of these smaller districts like Citrus County have been having tremendous growth," Moore told the Herald.
Citrus school officials don't exactly characterize the growth in Citrus schools as tremendous, but they agree that the district could be absorbing some of the student exodus from larger districts.
"Citrus has one of the lowest student-to-general-population ratios in the state, and our housing prices have historically been very competitive, so it would make sense that some of the younger families with children would migrate to this part of the state where housing is more affordable," Dixon said. "It is certainly the case already in parts of the county like Beverly Hills."
A closer look shows that all but seven schools in Citrus received more students this year.
At the elementary level, enrollment rose by 61 students to 7,071. Citrus Springs Elementary, in the county's fast-growing Central Ridge area, saw the biggest increase. It enrolled 943 students, 46 more than last year.
Citrus Springs Middle has 88 fewer kids than last year, and Crystal River Middle grew by 123 students.
Last year, school officials redrew attendance boundaries to shift more Central Ridge middle school students to underenrolled Crystal River. Lecanto Middle remains the largest middle school with 1,178 students, 58 more than last year.
Last year's rezoning also aimed to ease crowding at the high schools. It seems the effort was successful at Lecanto High, where enrollment dropped to 1,676, down 61 students from last year. The school added a wing of concrete classrooms during the summer to help with crowding.
The boundary shifts, however, caused Citrus High to grow to 1,712 students, an increase of 83 students from last year. Crystal River High remains the district's least crowded high school. It added only 17 students this year, bringing enrollment to 1,391.
Dixon said the schools have been able to cope with the growth.
And while some may find it surprising, the high schools haven't reached capacity.
Citrus High, for example, can accommodate 240 more students, according to the state's inventory of student stations.
But the number of students that the state says a school can handle often clashes with reality. That's because the state artificially inflates capacity, Dixon said.
Over the years, Citrus High has been forced to turn storage space into classrooms and reported those as additional student stations to the state.
Moreover, the state doesn't take into account that some classrooms are not used during teacher planning periods, Dixon said.
In the coming months, the School Board is expected to adopt a plan that will cap student enrollment at each school level. The board is concerned that the high schools are getting too big. The plan also will call for making major renovations to existing schools, even possibly rebuilding Crystal River High.
Already, the board has set aside money for a new elementary school in Citrus Springs. It is scheduled to open in August 2008.
Dixon said the housing boom in the '90s slowed after the Sept. 11 attacks.
Since then, student growth was sluggish in Citrus. In 2003, as the economy improved, the schools began to see more growth, Dixon said. This year's growth is the most in four years, he said.
"You have to look at overall growth in the county," Dixon said. "There's a lot of empty space to fill up. We're already at the bottom of the student-to-general-population ratio, so we only have one way to go, and that's up."
Eddy Ramirez can be reached at eramirez@sptimes.com or (352) 860-7305.