‘A lot of excited educators’ await Fort Mill students. But just how many students?
In Fort Mill schools, there are numbers and there are faces. Superintendent Chuck Epps will wait and see on the numbers. He’s sold already on the faces.
“There’s a group of people, I see it in their faces,” Epps said when the school board met Tuesday night. “I don’t know if it’s just being back to some kind of normalcy. There’s a lot of excited educators ready to go.”
School staff returned last Monday. Students return Monday coming. Wednesday brought a district-wide meeting of educators. Meet the teacher, freshman orientation and similar events across school levels occur this week.
“The schools will be alive once again with activity,” Epps said. “Parents, teachers, students. Fun stuff. Good time of year.”
As for how many people will fill Fort Mill schools, time will tell. The district projects it will have about 1,000 more students than Rock Hill schools, a fact that boggles Epps when he considers Fort Mill had the smallest district in York County less than three decades ago.
“We think we’re going to have over 18,000 attendees,” Epps said. “But we can’t count them today, a week ahead of time.”
Student counts impact everything from state funding to classroom teacher needs. Last year the district ended with almost 17,900 students. The most recent figure for the coming year is just more than 18,000. Another 300 students are scheduled for testing and enrollment still.
“Those are the ones we know about,” Epps said. “We always have walk ups.”
The district had projected enrollment at about 18,600 to start the year. One grade in particular has been a couple hundred students lower, as of Tuesday night, than first thought.
“Kindergarten registration this time this year versus this time last year, it’s less,” Epps said. “And that hasn’t happened in years.”
There are offsets. Fourth and fifth grades are high. School board chair Kristy Spears said ninth grade is the biggest class overall. Already the district shifted one kindergarten position to a fourth grade teaching one. Epps said he isn’t sure if the housing market, pandemic or other factors may be responsible for lower kindergarten enrollment.
“I don’t why they’re not showing up at 5K, and maybe they will yet,” he said.
The massive Elizabeth subdivision is building now, as are others throughout Fort Mill and Tega Cay that can further bump enrollment with new phases.
“We’re talking about only growing by 500 instead of 800,” Epps said. “We’re still growing. It’s a unique situation.”
The district will get a first day number, which typically is up to 200 fewer students than what they 10th day figure will be. The initial number could still be in the 17,000s. Enrollment typically grows each month.
“Just wait,” Epps said. “They will come.”
As the year progresses, the district may well hit or approach its prior number used for budgeting and preparation.
“I suspect when the dust settles, we’re probably going to be somewhere in that 18,600 or so,” Epps said. “But who knows? Maybe we won’t.”
Board member Michele Branning said one challenge with first day numbers is kindergarten, where a staggered start means students have different first days in the initial week of school.
“We phase in kindergarten,” Branning said. “They phase in their start, so it takes a minute to catch up.”
Epps said there is plenty of room at the kindergarten level even if more students show up than are currently enrolled. Numbers are somewhat fuzzy a week ahead of school by nature, but they aren’t guesses. Spears said staff worked not only to enroll and anticipate enrollment, but factor in changes for students who may not return.
“If we’ve had the records request, if we know that they’ve moved or they’ve gone to another school or whatever, we’ve taken them out,” Spears said.
Enrollment isn’t official, and eligible to impact school funding, until students attend. Board member Wayne Bouldin said overall middle school enrollment looks relatively flat. Elementary is down 3% and high school up 6.4%, based on current estimates.
Regardless, Epps is confident the district will be ready to educate the highest student count in York County, well. He’s hopeful pandemic issues are in the past and school will be back this fall, in a way it hasn’t been back in a while.
“It’s been two years of stop and go,” Epps said. “And we ended up in a go last year, the last part of the year. I think everybody is just eagerly anticipating seeing people’s faces.”
