Enrollment dips slightly from 2019

By Lynsi Musselman

Albany Independent School District enrollment totals after the first week of school are sitting at 509, about a dozen less than this time last year.

AISD director of students services Leigh Lowe said 281 students are at Nancy Smith Elementary School and 228 are at Albany Junior/Senior High.

AJSH principal Glenn Hill said some students have withdrawn and some have enrolled this past week, keeping the number about the same.

The secondary campus is broken down by seventh and eighth grade in the junior high building with 82 students and high school students in ninth through 12th grades with an enrollment of 146.

The 281 figure at NSES is two less students than this time last year but 12 more than in 2018. 

The breakdown of the 281 students is 29 between pre-kindergarten and headstart, 30 in kindergarten, 39 in first grade, 38 in second grade, 38 in third grade, 32 in fourth grade, 37 in fifth grade, and 38 in sixth grade.

Lowe said an increase or decrease in students does not always mean more or less money from the state.

“Each student is weighed differently and the amount per student depends on several factors,” Lowe explained. 

She explained that the district counts on each student enrolled to be present each day if at all possible.

“We could actually lose money with more students enrolled who do not have good attendance,” Lowe added. “It is most important for kids to be safe and healthy, but we want a high percentage of kids here each day.”

Lowe also commented that with the state’s response to the COVID-19 pandemiclast spring, the Texas Education Agency changed an already complicated   formula of how students are counted for funding.

“We’ll have to see how it all plays out,” she said.