Havre preliminary enrollment released

As students once again fill the halls of Havre Public Schools, the administration is keeping an eye on the number of enrolled students to get an idea of what October's official count will look like.

While some of the district's concerns a few weeks ago about the relatively small incoming kindergarten class have been eased, the high school numbers still worry Havre Public Schools Superintendent Andy Carlson.

Last year's unexpectedly large kindergarten class has now moved on to form a 181-student first-grade class, still about 30 students more than average.

Earlier this summer the kindergarten enrollment figures were about 30 people in the opposite direction, with less than 120 students signed up.

As of this week that has been fixed, with a healthy 150-student class entering Highland Park Early Primary School for the first time.

The smaller high school enrollment seems to be more of an issue with the new senior class, with 119 students, than the incoming freshmen, who are the largest of the high school classes with 159 students.

The good news is that those seniors, the smallest class in Havre Public Schools, will graduate in May and and this year's 141-student eighth-grade class will join the graduates of other local elementary schools to replace them as incoming freshmen.

The bad news is that the small class this year could mean a reduction in headcount-based funding for the schools next year, when the small class will have already left. But such are the challenges of a reactive, rather than proactive, funding structure.

The don't-worry-too-much-about-it news is that this year is an election/legislative year, which means that anything could happen. The funding system, with all its algorithms and formulas, could be completely different by the next time budgets get drawn up.

Highland Park Early Primary School:

Kindergarten - 150

1st grade - 181

Lincoln-McKinley Primary School:

2nd grade - 149

3rd grade - 147

Sunnyside Intermediate School:

4th grade - 137

5th grade - 152

Havre Middle School:

6th grade - 165

7th grade - 150

8th grade - 141

Havre High School:

Freshmen - 159

Sophomores - 139

Juniors - 143

Seniors - 119