Hundreds of students may still be ‘missing’ from Tri-City classes as schools reopen
Tri-City schools are staying relatively quiet — but hopeful — about how many new students they expect to see this upcoming school year.
Local schools last year were still feeling the enrollment pinch cause by COVID-19, when many parents kept their kids home to learn or turned to private schools.
This spring, the Kennewick School District was still down about 500 students compared with 2019-20 numbers.
Richland and Pasco also were down by 300 to 400, according to budget summaries posted over the summer.
“We have planned for enrollment to stay comparable to the 21-22 school year,” said Anna Tensmeyer, Pasco’s director of public affairs, in a text message to the Herald. “We are in the middle of registration and some early indicators show we might see some growth.”
Pasco is budgeting for about 17,566 students this school year. And Kennewick expects to see about 18,340 students, which is about 110 more compared with last year.
As students head back to school this week, the Richland School District is holding out past Labor Day to give its projections and actual enrollment count.
“It is so hard for us to know close to what we’re going to have,” said Ty Beaver, Richland’s director of communications.
He declined to talk about the district’s enrollment projections for this upcoming school year. A 2022-23 budget overview on the district’s website did not list any projected figures, just previous numbers.
“Our logic is that we want to see the whites of our students’ eyes before we count them,” he said. Most Tri-Cities school districts start classes this week.
Last school year, Richland hovered around an average 13,400 full-time students, Beaver said.
Kennewick Superintendent Traci Pierce said her district was seeing enrollment increases taper off even before the pandemic.
The district’s projection of 18,340 students is about 150 fewer than last year’s projection, when the district budgeted for 18,496 and only saw about 18,230.
Still, they expect to see year-over-year growth.
The Tri-City’s public school enrollment woes are not unique, though. Districts across the state are still working through a slow rebound in the number of students registering for classes following COVID.
Washington state saw a stark decrease of more than 37,000 enrolled students between fall 2019 and 2020, and just last year reported a little more than 1.07 million.
Classrooms rely on strong enrollment to fulfill state apportionment that funds teachers, staff and academic needs. The numbers also is used to determine funding for school buildings and programs.
This story was originally published August 30, 2022 at 5:00 AM.
