The Pennsbury School District’s enrollment is expected to remain stable over the next decade, according to projections presented last month to the school board.
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Dr. Kristopher Brown, assistant superintendent for administration, provided a detailed breakdown of current enrollment figures and future projections during the October meeting.
“Our enrollment is broken down across all grades K to 12,” Brown explained. “An emerging trend is that our incoming kindergarten class numbered at 644 students. In comparison, the exiting class, the graduating class of 2024, was over 700 students.”
The district partnered with Futurethink in January to develop ten-year enrollment projections.
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The projections were based on an analysis of live birth data, historical enrollment, home school enrollment, private school enrollment, community demographics, and housing information.
“This information really does give us the ability to plan for the future,” Brown said. “As you can see, fairly stable enrollment over the course of the next ten years. And that will allow us to continue to develop the long-term capital plan.”
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The projections show incoming kindergarten classes are expected to remain below 700 students for the next seven years to give a consistent level of enrollment across schools.
The enrollment data revealed some variations across individual schools.
At the high school level, Pennsbury High School currently has an enrollment of more than 2,800 students.
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Brown noted that the large student population allows for unique educational opportunities. He added that the new high school plan will assist in that by having the students under one roof.
“One of the advantages to housing the high school on one site, one campus for high school is the ability to provide unique and engaging learning experiences,” he said. “We offer courses at the high school like astrophysics, but that number, there’s 13 students who would take that course. And if the high school was spread across two different sites, that might not be possible.”
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Superintendent Dr. Thomas Smith stated the benefit of enrollment stability is that the district can better plan for the future.
“This is good for us,” Smith commented. “It provides a great opportunity to plan long term based on the current projections.”
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The stable enrollment trends come as Pennsbury moves toward construction of a new high school.
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