Bentonville School District had the greatest jump in the number of students on the first day of school this year among the public school districts in Benton and Washington counties.
On Tuesday, the first day back for Bentonville students, 15,829 students were in classes, spokesman Paul Stolt said. That is an increase of 847 students from last school year's first-day head count of 14,982 students.
Counting students
The following shows the number of students who reported back for classes on the first day of the new school year, compared with last year’s official Oct. 1 enrollment and the head count from the first day last school year.
Official enrollment First day First day
School District 2014-15 2014-15 2015-16
*Bentonville 15,497 14,982 15,829
Decatur 544 505 549
Elkins 1,112 1,114 1,132
Farmington 2,321 2,312 2,408
*Fayetteville 9,503 9,252 9,373
Gentry 1,114 1,445 1,448
Gravette 1,870 1,786 1,774
Greenland 836 819 818
Lincoln 1,194 1,188 1,168
Pea Ridge 1,841 1,830 1,959
Prairie Grove 1,840 1,817 1,834
Rogers 15,027 14,667 14,875
Siloam Springs 4,113 3,999 3,988
Springdale 21,120 20,300 20,225
West Fork 1,122 1,123 1,108
*Bentonville and Fayetteville counts are from Tuesday. Tuesday was the first day back for Bentonville students. In Fayetteville, 11th- and 12th-graders were not due back until Tuesday, making Tuesday the first day back for all students.
Source: Arkansas Department of Education, school districts
"We are up quite a bit from last year," said Tanya Sharp, Bentonville executive director of student services. "It does impact our buildings. We've got a new elementary building that will open in 2017. Our new high school will open next year in 2016."
The fastest growing parts of the district are in southwest part of Bentonville and in Bella Vista, Stolt said.
The first day of school gives school administrators a chance to compare how many students attend vs. how many enrolled, and they closely monitor daily counts. The official enrollment for school districts is determined Oct. 1.
Rogers' first-day head count was up 208 students compared with last year.
About 100 more students attended on the first day back in Fayetteville, Farmington and Pea Ridge. In Fayetteville, Tuesday was the first day all students were due back in school. Juniors and seniors were off on Monday in Fayetteville.
"We are certainly at capacity in quite a few of our grades," said Farmington Superintendent Bryan Law. "The numbers in our high school and our middle school have really shot up. We don't really know exactly why that is."
In Springdale, the first-day head count Monday was down 75 students from the first-day count of 20,300 students in 2014-15, said Jared Cleveland, deputy superintendent for Springdale School District. The number of students in class on Tuesday, however, rose from 20,225 on Monday to 20,562.
After about the third day of a new school year, officials begin making phone calls to try to find out why enrolled students haven't attended to determine who should remain on school rosters and who should be taken off, such as students who have moved, Fayetteville spokesman Alan Wilbourn said.
In some districts, such as Prairie Grove, the first day total is among the lowest tallies of students attending for the school year, Superintendent Allen Williams said. The first day head count was similar to last school year, with 1,834 in school on Monday. He expects the district's enrollment will settle at about 1,880 students.
Most school officials expect their student populations to fluctuate for the first couple of weeks and for enrollment to stabilize next month.
The first-day attendance in Decatur reached the higher end of what Superintendent Jeff Gravette expected, he said. He had planned for 530 to 550 students, and the first-day number totaled 549, he said. Another 30 students arrived on Tuesday.
"We're at 580, which would be our highest numbers we've had in 12 years," Gravette said. "Typically we start low and finish higher."
Last school year, Farmington's peak count of students in ninth through 12th grades was 711 students, which fell to 685 students by the end of the school year, said Clayton Williams, assistant principal of Farmington Career Academies, the district's high school. This year, 740 students attended the first day, 190 in the Freshman Academy and 550 in the Farmington Career Academies.
"We are pleasantly surprised about the increase," Williams said.
In Bentonville, some growth has occurred in the fifth through eighth grades, Stolt said. The district hired a seventh-grade teacher to create another section at Fulbright Junior High School.
Pea Ridge hired two more middle school teachers because of growth, Superintendent Rick Neal said. The first-day count last year was 1,830, compared with 1,959 this school year, with 515 students in grades six through eight.
The district experienced a 9 percent increase last school year and expected the same amount of growth this year, Neal said. The first-day numbers show 6 percent growth.
Enrollment is important because schools receive funding under the state's school finance system based on average enrollment through the first three quarters of the school year, Cleveland said.
Enrollment affects class sizes and the number of students assigned to seventh- through 12th-grade teachers, ratios that are subject to state accreditation standards, Cleveland said.
"I have to watch to not be over-staffed, but also have to be really careful to not overload students in classes," Cleveland said.
Brenda Bernet can be reached by email at [email protected] or on Twitter @NWABrenda.
NW News on 08/20/2015