Warren County School System enrollment is up slightly from previous years with a total of 6,278 students as of Monday afternoon.
“That’s about what we expected,” said Director of Schools Bobby Cox. “We track enrollment very closely for the first 10 days of school. After the first 10 days, the state requires us to drop all of our no-shows.”
After opening day last year, total Warren County enrollment was 6,158 students. The school system had 6,156 students after the first day in August 2012.
Cox said it’s typical for enrollment to edge higher during the first two weeks of school before stabilizing.
Looking at enrollment figures, Irving College continues to be the smallest K-8 school in the county. For the past three years, Irving College has averaged 195 students after the first day and had 199 this year as of Monday.
School officials briefly toyed with the idea of building a new Irving College facility closer to town to increase enrollment, but have scrapped that idea. The county now appears poised to pump $3 million into Irving College School upgrades, including a new gym and eight new classrooms.
For the third straight year the four largest schools in the county remain unchanged. They are 1) WCHS, 2) WCMS, 3) Hickory Creek, and 4) Bobby Ray.
WCHS enrollment includes a freshman class with 475 students. Cox said that number is typical for most grade levels.
“If you look at our numbers countywide, we have 450 to 500 students in most of our grade levels,” said Cox. “We have 491 students system-wide in our eighth-grade class so 475 freshmen is normal.”
Students began school Aug. 7 and have days off Sept. 1 (Labor Day) and Sept. 12 (Fair Day) before fall break Oct. 13-17.