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Projecting Enrollment for the RI Schools

Enrollment in the Rock Island schools will be stable for a couple of years, but then start falling. Tuesday night, the board of education discussed the latest five-year projections for the district.

Chief Financial Officer Bob Beckwith says every year he updates possible changes in enrollment - to see what the trends are so they can plan for possible changes in staffing and facilities.

"One of the major factors is last year's live birth rates for our school district were down 16 per cent. So you take those into consideration when calculating what your kindergarten enrollment will be. So with that large drop in live birth rates for last year, that's now starting to affect us on our projections for the next five."

Beckwith says enrollment in the Rock Island schools has held steady in recent years at about 6,000, and it should stay near that level before beginning to fall in two years (2021).
 

A native of Detroit, Herb Trix began his radio career as a country-western disc jockey in Roswell, New Mexico (“KRSY, your superkicker in the Pecos Valley”), in 1978. After a stint at an oldies station in Topeka, Kansas (imagine getting paid to play “Louie Louie” and “Great Balls of Fire”), he wormed his way into news, first in Topeka, and then in Freeport Illinois.