Parish school student count decliness

St. Mary Parish public schools lost 96 students as of Wednesday’s population count, continuing a 10-year trend that has led to the loss of more than 1,100 students.
Louisiana schools take a count Oct. 1 and Feb. 1 each school year, and these enrollment numbers are the basis for the amount of funding they receive from the state. On Oct. 1, 2013, St. Mary had 9,051 students enrolled versus 8,955 counted on Wednesday, according to statistics provided by the district.
Under the Minimum Foundation Program, Louisiana annually adopts a formula to allocate funding for education to school districts. Funding through this program is provided to school districts as a block grant. After satisfying all mandated requirements, school districts have the flexibility to spend the funding to meet the needs of their schools and students.
St. Mary Assistant Superintendent Teresa Bagwell said the district receives about $4,800 for each student. That equates to $42.98 million for the 8,955 students counted Wednesday. MFP money constitutes between 45 percent and 50 percent of the district’s budget annually, she said.
“We actually anticipated some decline based on trends of the last few years and adjusted spending during budget workshops last spring. The recent declines in sales tax revenue in combination with a reduced student population will continue to be cause for concern as the district expends budgeted funds this school year and looks to conserve as much as possible without compromising instructional programs,” Bagwell said.
As of Oct. 1, 2004, St. Mary had 10,123 students, and by Oct. 1, 2009, the district was down to 9,534, according to the state Department of Education.
Meanwhile, parish population has remained stable, with the U.S. Census Bureau reporting 53,500 people in 2000; 54,650 in 2010; 54,234 in 2011; 53,697 in 2012; and 53,543 in 2013.
However, the number of children (ages 5-17) dropped during 2010, 2011 and 2012. The Census reported 10,057 school-age children in the parish in 2010, 9,856 in 2011 and 9,667 in 2012.
“The state provides school districts with a longitudinal projection of enrollment numbers annually. St. Mary’s report has consistently indicated that we would experience a 1.25 percent decrease in student enrollment, which mimics the 10-year loss of 1,168 students,” Bagwell said in an email.
“Given the state’s access to a wide array of data bases, the predicted numbers result from a sophisticated use of data protocols and may be due in part to an aging parish population. Essentially, there are simply fewer school age kids in St. Mary,” Bagwell added.
She said the Franklin and Baldwin areas have shown slight declines among most of the schools within those communities. In the Berwick, Patterson and Morgan City areas, there is a mixture of increases and decreases among individual schools within each community, Bagwell said.
Over the same 10-year period, the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux reported a loss of 27 students at Holy Cross Elementary, from 346 in the 2004-05 school year to 319 in the 2014-15 school year. Meanwhile, Central Catholic High School added 34 students in the same time frame, from 194 in 2004-05 to 228 this year.
Data from the Lafayette Diocese for Hanson Memorial High School and St. John Elementary, both in Franklin, was not available for the current school year. However, enrollment figures from the previous five years indicate a loss of 54 students at St. John, from 186 in 2009-10 to 132 in 2013-14.
At Hanson, enrollment went from 269 students in 2009-10 to 280 in 2013-14, for an increase of 11.
Meanwhile, state Department of Education statistics indicate there were 36 BESE-approved home study students in 2004-05, and 84 in the 2013-14 school year.
“Understandably, the state’s projected enrollment report has been utilized to inform budget decisions each year and also to examine instructional needs at the school level or within a specific grade configuration,” Bagwell said.