School district sees ‘huge influx’ of fifth-graders
By Scott Bellile
Enrollment at Hortonville Area School District continues to climb.
“We are up 140 students from last year to this year,” District Administrator told the Hortonville School Board Aug. 8. “Boy, the fifth grade, [Greenville Middle School] went from 117 last year to 166 this year, so huge increase. [Hortonville Middle School]’s fifth grade went from 91 to 133. So we’ve got a huge influx of fifth-graders. I think we had three families call today, so we’re enrolling families every day.”
The combined 91 additional fifth-graders between GMS and HMS aren’t all new to the district. Last year the class of 2024 was larger than other classes at Hortonville Elementary School and Greenville Elementary School.
Open enrollment numbers for fifth-grade students coming into the district aren’t expected to increase by more than a few students, so the “influx” Schmidt mentioned could be attributed to a mixture of a large class of 2024 and more residents moving into the district.
“During this last couple weeks we’re going to be enrolling more children and those numbers are going to continue to increase,” Schmidt predicted.
Schmidt reported HASD is keeping tabs on the eighth grades at HMS and GMS because the grades are projected to average 28 and 27.6 students per classroom, respectively. If either rises to 28.5 per room, then HASD must hire another teacher.
The district will evaluate classroom space needs at its schools as the populations increase, Schmidt said. HASD recently installed more lockers for fifth-graders at GMS.
As of Aug. 4, when HASD last released updated numbers, all HASD schools were projected to increase enrollment except Hortonville Elementary School, which was down three students. The 4-year-old kindergarten program was also projected to fall from 185 students to 150 students.
GMS enrollment was projected to increase the most, by 62 students.
“We have more students that are choosing to open enroll into the district than are choosing to leave,” Schmidt said. “So it’s overall a good problem.”