Cedar Rapids school district enrollment numbers decline

CEDAR RAPIDS - The Cedar Rapids school district has roughly 1,500 fewer students in its schools now than it did 10 years ago.

The official head count for the 2011-12 school year is 15,975 students, according to enrollment information presented to school board members last night. The district had 17,431 students enrolled in 2002-03.

Enrollment in Cedar Rapids' public schools has been steadily declining for the past decade, aside from a slight increase between 2004-05 and 2005-06. However, this decline turned into a nose dive after the Floods of 2008, and schools affected by the flooding have not seen their numbers return to where they were before.

The head count represents the number of students enrolled in the Cedar Rapids district on Oct. 1. It doesn't include dual-enrolled or shared-time students.

The number of students open-enrolling out of the district - now 933.7 - has increased in the last 10 years, from 656.6 in 2002-03. The number who open-enroll into Cedar Rapids schools has decreased in the same time frame, from 492.2 students in 2002-03 to 388.2 now.

Board member Keith Westercamp expressed concern over the open-enrollment numbers, calling them an indicator of customer satisfaction.

“Every time we lose a student, they're not coming back,” he said. “I'd like to see where they are going.”

John Laverty, the board president, said he'd like to know why students choose to attend schools outside the district.

Sandy Stephen, the district's executive administrator of instructional services, said the last time the district studied that information, it found that a significant number of students were enrolling in the Marion school district's home-school assistance program.

What hasn't declined, however, is the percentage of Cedar Rapids students who qualify for free and reduced-price lunches, which is an indicator of poverty. Nearly 47 percent of students qualify for the program this year, up from 33.6 percent in 2002-03.

Also increasing is the number of minority students the district serves. Minorities make up 24.2 percent of the student body now, up from 16 percent in 2002-03.