DeKalb County Schools Attendance Supervisor Clay Farler announced preliminary numbers for enrollment this year at Thursday’s regular meeting of the school board.
While 3,055 students were signed up for school at the tIme of the meeting, Farler told the Review Monday that when pre-k numbers come in, and no-shows are all accounted for, the total should be near or above 3,100 students.
“We estimate that we will have 40-50 pre-k students when the numbers all come in,” Farler said.
The final figures will be tallied by the 10th day of school.
Enrollment will most likely be up from the 3,062 students registered as of the eighth day of school last year, and 2,994 in 2010.
As of Thursday, DeKalb County High School's enrollment was at 869 with 201 seniors, also an enrollment milestone.
“There were only 847 students at DCHS on the fifth day of school last year,” Farler said at the meeting. “There's 869 now, and we pretty much have accounted for the no-shows except for two or three. It's a little larger number, especially at the high school.
“The total throughout the county is 3,055. Of course, this will change some by next Thursday, the 10th day of school,” Farler shared. “That's the official day everything should be accounted for. All students who haven't shown up yet, we've got to track them down. We only have about 45 or 46 students that we don't know for sure if they're coming or not. It's probably less than that.
“We don't have all the pre-k students on the roll yet but that was also the case last year,” he continued. “When they get added to the roll, there will be approximately 40 more students, so it will be pushing 3,100 students county-wide. But like I said, there are several no shows that will probably come off that number. Even at that, we'll probably still be up from last year.”
Farler said every grade has surpassed 200 students this year, with the sixth grade making the biggest showing with 256 students registered.
“There are no grade levels at the present time that have under 200 students. They all have over 200 students except for pre-k,” he informed the board. “The smallest class is the senior class. They are at 201 students at the moment. The largest class has been moving through year by year. Now they're up to the sixth grade. They have 256 students county-wide. They're by far the largest class. Most of the other classes are between 210 students on up to 233, so all the classes from kindergarten to the 12th grade have over 200 students. We usually start at 175 to 180 students in the senior class. The fifth-grade county-wide is 241 students. The fourth grade is 235 and the third grade is 228,” Farler shared.
Farler also told the assembly that three-year-old children will be attending pre-kindergarten at DeKalb West School for the first time in several years.
“There are two pilot classrooms in the county and have been since 2002,” he said. “Those pilot classrooms can have three and-four-year-old students, but the other three pre-k classes at Smithville Elementary School can only have four-year-old students. We're already full in the four-year-old classes, and we're within one or two students being full at DeKalb West School and Smithville Elementary School mainly because they have three-year-old students in those classrooms. You cannot have a full 20 students if you have three-year-olds in the room," he said.
Meanwhile, Director of Schools Mark Willoughby gave his monthly personnel report.
Employment last month included:
Carl Douglas Cantrell, substitute custodian; Rick Cross, special education teacher at Northside Elementary School; Bethany Davis, transition coordinator teacher at DCHS; Michelle McManus, substitute cook; Diana Moon, teacher at DeKalb West School; Chris Moore, special education assistant at DeKalb Middle School; Joshua Odom, teacher at Northside Elementary School; Michael Shaw, teacher at DCHS; Kristen Kell, special education teacher at DeKalb West School
Transferred last month were:
Holly Bain, transferred to Pre-K educational assistant at DeKalb West School; Katherine Ballard, full-time school psychologist; Brenda Bandy, transferred from DCHS to DeKalb West School; Shelly Gibson, transferred to regular education assistant at DeKalb West School; Lynn Griffith, transferred from bus assistant to special ed bus Driver; Debbie Knowles, transferred to new special ed assistant position at Northside Elementary School; Daniel Lawson, transferred from sub bus driver to special ed bus driver; James Donnie Lewis, transferred from sub bus driver to full time route; Paula Pinegar, transferred to library assistant position at DeKalb Middle School; Teresa Spencer, transferred to special education position at DeKalb Middle School; Carol Tallent, transferred to new special education teacher position at Smithville Elementary School Kindergarten; Judy Wiggins, transferred from sub bus assistant to full time.
Jimmy Poss resigned from his position of bus driver.