For first time, school enrollment under 500

Ely school officials knew a giant hit in enrollment was coming.

That tempered some of the surprise Monday, when a report at Ely’s regular school board meeting showed that the district had only 484 students enrolled in grades K-12.

The total is easily the smallest in better than 100 years of reporting, 41 students less than were enrolled this time a year ago and a whopping 114 fewer than just eight years ago in the fall of 2017.