OTTUMWA —
Kindergarten is a fun class to teach, but that’s not why district administrators are smiling.
“It’s great,” said Ottumwa Superintendent Davis Eidahl. “Anytime we can increase our enrollment, it’s good for our district and for our community.”
While a principal at Evans Middle School, Eidahl said no grade level came through hit the 400-pupil mark. This year’s eighth-grade class has 299 kids. So the 415 children starting kindergarten this year got the district’s notice.
“It kind of surprised us a little bit, and we had to rearrange some [classes and teaching] schedules. It’s always hard to estimate an incoming kindergarten class. We added a section of kindergarten, but even with that, we have maxed out our recommended class sizes. Across the district, we have really filled our rooms.”
Eidahl, who visits every building as part of his job, said it’s very rewarding to see children going through what, for some, is their first year in school.
“There’s no job greater than that of being a kindergarten teacher. When you put 23 of those kids into a room? Our teachers are going to work very hard this year,” he said.
But administrators have a job that may not be quite as fun. They need to figure out whether the increase is a statistical anomaly.
“We have to make long-term projections, determine if this is a trend, or just a bubble,” said Eidahl.
A “bubble” would be 415 students floating to first grade next year, second the following year and so on until they graduate in 2025 — or is this a trend, where every class is going to have over 400 students?
There are benefits to an increased student population. An extra 100 students in a district means half a million dollars extra, too, in school funding.
How many students a district has will affect how many teachers it needs — and how many millions of dollars to spend on expansions.
“We need to make a very educated guess as we’re remodeling and building schools over the upcoming years,” Eidahl said. “You don’t want to build it too big; wasted space is wasted cost. But you want to do it the right way the first time.”
Right now, the district has 4,455 students. If the giant kindergarten class became a trend, that number would soar to nearly 5,400 students.
“As a big fan of this community and this district, I hope 400 is a trend,” Eidahl said. “There are challenges, but these are the challenges we are happy to have.”
Local News
September 15, 2012
School district says biggest class in years could be a good sign
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