Enrollment in Austin Public Schools stands at 4,150 students for all grades.

Wednesday, September 13, 2000

Enrollment in Austin Public Schools stands at 4,150 students for all grades.

That compares to 4,200 a year ago.

The Austin Board of Education heard the enrollment figures at their meeting Monday night in the council chambers of the Austin Municipal Building.

This year’s elementary enrollment is 1,834; the middle school is 989; and the high school is 1,327.

Austin High School

The breakdown of high school enrollment figures was done by Principal Joe Brown.

According to Brown, there are 365 ninth-graders, 337 10th-graders, 350 11th-graders and 275 12th-graders.

The gender breakdown shows 671 boys and 656 girls.

There are 164 high school special education students and 42 English-as-a-second-language students. There are 1,184 whites, 71 Hispanics, 11 blacks, 59 Asians and two American Indians.

While school board members expressed concerns that the number of students on the waiting list for slots in the district’s Area Learning Center program were addressed, they spent the most time reviewing the master schedule with Brown.

Brown’s exhausting report was 17 pages long and left no class unexplored.

At the outset, Brown admitted, "We’re packed at the high school and we’re starting to feel like SPAM."

But, the principal also said "every child has a desk" and that where overcrowding exists, attempts are being made to relieve the problems.

Among the highlights of Brown’s enrollment report were that the largest classes at AHS are in the area of language arts for grades 11 and 12.

Also, the high school’s seven-period day does not allow advanced placement class students enough periods, because there are more than seven AP classes.

However, anomalies such as only 16 students in an AP government and politics class – the smallest of any AHS class – also have created the need to re-examine this area at the AP schedule.

Also large numbers of chemistry class students have necessitated unusual juggling by the teachers, who allow one-half of their students to do lab work while the other half do classroom work.

That prompted board members to question whether teaching and lab assistants should be hired.

By the time Brown and the school board members had reviewed the high school enrollment figures, there were more questions than answers.

Brown’s early pitch for hiring additional staff met with opposition from board Chairman David Simonson, who said that hiring additional staff "is what got us into trouble just a couple of years ago."

Still, Brown said he would seek the school board finance committee’s interest in hiring more personnel, including AmeriCorps and Green Thumb workers, to help teachers relieve the stress of large class sizes in some classrooms.

Bev Nordby, another school board member, questioned the special education enrollment figures. Brown told Nordby that there are 167 special education students and one less teacher this year at the high school.

The loss of a teacher is being addressed by combining special education students of different ability levels, according to Brown.

Ellis Middle School

Principal Jean McDermott told the school board members that this year’s enrollment shows 310 sixth-graders, 349 seventh-graders and 330 eighth-graders.

The 989 Ellis students include 502 boys and 487 girls.

There are 157 special education students, 63 English-as-a-second-language students and 872 Caucasian students.

There are 62 Hispanics, 17 blacks, 35 Asians and three American Indian students enrolled this school year.

Elementary schools

Susan A. Roehrich, director of educational services, reported on elementary enrollment figures.

Banfield has 513 students, Neveln has 359, Southgate has 547 and Sumner has 415.

There are 30 English-as-a-second-language students at Banfield, 23 at Neveln, 30 at Southgate and 29 at Sumner.

Average class sizes are 20 students for kindergarten, first and second grades, 22 for third and fifth grades and 23 for fourth grade.