Cedar Rapids enrollment continues decline

CEDAR RAPIDS - Enrollment in the Cedar Rapids Community School District has declined slightly this school year, reaching its lowest point since at least 2001.

The district, which has seen a downward trend in enrollment over the last decade, has 149 fewer students this year than last year, according to an official head count released at a Monday board meeting.

Declining enrollment in Cedar Rapids has been more significant since the 2008 flood, but the district last year saw its first increase in enrollment since 2005. Officials said they are optimistic enrollment will rebound in the next few years, despite this year's drop.

Among the most significant points from this year's data:

l The decrease from 16,033 students in 2013-14 to 15,884 in 2014-15 is a change of less than 1 percent, consistent with variances over the past 14 years. The only year since 2001 - the oldest data set provided by the district - in which enrollment changed by more than 2 percent was 2008, when it declined by about 4 percent.

l Overall, Cedar Rapids enrollment has dropped by 1,668 students (about 10 percent) since 2001, and by 1,254 students (about 7 percent) since 2007, the year before the flood.

l The number of high school students in the Cedar Rapids has increased by about 1 percent this year, while the numbers of students in elementary and middle school decreased by 2 percent and 1 percent, respectively.

l The percentage of Cedar Rapids students who receive free and reduced lunch - a common measure of poverty in schools - has remained about the same over the last five years. This school year, 47 percent of students receive free and reduced lunch, compared with 46 percent last year.

l The district's certified enrollment, a complex, weighted number that is separate from the official head count and determines state funding, declined slightly, by 21 students, this year after a 211-student increase last year.

Karla Ries, the district's director of instructional services, said open enrollment and differences in class size could have contributed to Cedar Rapids' enrollment drops.

Despite the slight decline this year, Ries said she remains confident more students will enter the district over the next few years.

'I do think we are starting to see that turnaround,” she told board members Monday.

Keith Westercamp, a member of the Cedar Rapids school board, agreed.

'As a percentage it's not much fluctuation,” Westercamp said. 'The city's done a lot (since the flood), and I think people are coming back.”

Notes:

Also at Monday's board meeting, Ries presented the district's annual progress report, which details changes in test scores, attendance rates and graduation rates. Scores on the Iowa Assessment grew for most grade levels, but not as much as the district had hoped. Attendance and graduation rates were roughly the same as in previous years.

Board members also voted to pass a long list of concrete repairs, roof replacements and other similar projects paid for by the Physical Plant and Equipment levy. An increase in that levy passed this September in a narrow vote.