Student enrollment drops
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JACKSON — The East Feliciana Parish school system’s Oct. 1 enrollment declined by 49 students between 2008 and this year, Superintendent Doug Beauchamp told the School Board on Tuesday.
The enrollment decline follows a trend that began in 1998, except for a gain in 2005 after Hurricane Katrina. In the last 12 headcounts, the overall enrollment has dropped by 679 students.
On Oct. 1, the system counted 2,192 students, down from 2,241 on Oct. 1, 2008. The numbers include special education, kindergarten and pre-kindergarten enrollments.
The headcounts are tied to state aid to school districts.
“I’m very interested in where they went,” board member Matthew Peterson said.
Beauchamp said some transferred to other districts that requested their records, but others left without seeking records.
“If they don’t ask for records, I can’t tell,” the superintendent said, but added he believes a significant number are students who dropped out of high school.
The board authorized the district to set up a “credit recovery” program to give students who are not on track to graduate in four years make up for subjects they failed.
The state has mandated that districts have an 80 percent on-time graduation rate by 2014.
On another matter, Building Committee Chairman Mitch Harrell said a financial analysis of the needed maintenance and repairs at various schools led the committee to conclude that the board cannot complete “multi-purpose” buildings at Slaughter and Clinton elementary schools or build one on a prepared dirt pad at the Jackson School Complex.
Harrell said the board built shells of buildings on the Clinton and Slaughter campuses, but the buildings are not finished inside and cannot be used.
Intended for basketball games, assemblies or other functions, the two shells can be finished only if the communities hold drives to raise the necessary funds, Harrell said, estimating that the two unfinished structures need about $240,000 to $280,000 each for the final touches.
A complete facility on the Jackson campus would cost about $400,000, he estimated.
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