Enrollment tumbles again

The good news for Ely school officials is that student enrollment didn’t drop as much as expected.That’s the silver lining in an otherwise stormy cloud that continues to hang over the local district.First day enrollment totals, reviewed last week by Ely School Board members, show the district with 645 students in grades K-12.That’s a 37-student drop from last fall (see chart), and a whopping 30 percent decline since 1995, when enrollment was 921.And projections show that enrollment will sink even further - perhaps by as many as 100 students - over the next four years..Continued declines are expected as high school classes ranging from 52-74 students are replaced by incoming kindergarten groups with as few as 33 students.And with each student generating $5,000 or more in state aid, the declines are almost certain to cause further budget strain in the Ely district.District officials anticipated the current enrollment decline and worked those projections into the current budget, including the consolidation of administrative positions following the June retirement of former superintendent Ray Toutloff.New superintendent Tom Bruels, who doubles as the principal at Washington Elementary, took some solace last week that this year’s decline wasn’t as bad as anticipated.School officials feared that the district would lose as many as 50 students, and official projections released last fall called for a 43-student drop.“There were no big surprises,” said Bruels. “To be down (37) instead of 50, we came in on the good side.”The loss of students is largely in the high school, where there are 353 students in grades 7-12 this year, as opposed to 385 a year ago.Elementary student population went from 298 to 292.“We’ve kind of leveled off in the elementary with two sections per class,” said Bruels.School officials say that 31 Ely area children are home-schooled. Previous attempts to bring more home-schooled children into the district have been unsuccessful.School board chairperson Rudy Semeja said he was frustrated by the ongoing decline in student enrollment and called for a stepped-up effort to bring further employment to the area.“We aren’t making the progress in economic development that I think we should be making,” said Semeja. “I’ve been at it with the (Ely Area) Joint Powers Board for nine years, and it doesn’t seem like we’re getting anywhere. It’s like we’re running in place.”Ely is one of many northeastern Minnesota districts experiencing student population losses.Most Iron Range and Duluth area districts have reported similar trends.Enrollment is down in the neighboring St. Louis County School District, including both the Babbitt-Embarrass and Tower-Soudan campuses.