Enrollment numbers are looking up, slightly, for the Sitka School District. When the Sitka School Board met on November 5, Superintendent Deidre Jenson said the final student count will go to the state this week, where the data will be reviewed to ensure there are no duplicates.
“That takes a while before that’s actually firmed up, but right now, our preliminary counts are 1,026,” Jenson said in an interview with KCAW after the meeting.
That’s 26 more students than the district budgeted for, which means an additional $180,000 in state funding. Jenson says they will likely save any additional funding that comes through for next year.
“We have increases in wage increases, our step increases, just additional costs next year,” Jenson said. “So we would just hang on to that.”
While numbers are up from last year, enrollment numbers have generally been on the decline in Sitka and across Southeast’s aging communities for the past couple of decades.
While the school board won’t deal with next year’s budget for some time, the board agreed on superintendent and board priorities for the coming year, heard a presentation from Pacific High School about current programs and began to plan a walkthrough of school facilities with the board and city staff to review the district’s maintenance needs.
