SPRINGDALE -- Springdale's Hellstern Middle School serves about 1,000 sixth- and seventh-graders, pushing the limit on how many the building can handle.
The school uses common areas for health classes, and gifted and talented classes. When a flu-shot clinic was held there last month, it was set up in the front lobby because there wasn't an open room available, said Principal Allison Byford.
"Every nook and cranny is used," she said of the school.
Springdale, like several other Northwest Arkansas school districts, is feeling the pressure from increasing enrollment. It became the state's largest district this year with 21,962 students as of Oct. 1, surpassing the Little Rock School District by nearly 400 students.
Springdale's enrollment grew by a relatively modest 0.6 percent from last fall, but it's up by more than 25 percent in the past 10 years.
There were 87,360 students enrolled in public schools in Benton and Washington counties as of Oct. 1, a 1.6 percent increase compared with the same date a year earlier, according to the Arkansas Department of Education.
Statewide enrollment in public schools on Oct. 1 was 478,318, a decrease of 0.2 percent from last year.
The annual October count in Arkansas school systems, including charter schools, is considered the official enrollment for the year and is a harbinger for state funding levels for the next school year. State funding for a district is based on the average kindergarten-through-12th-grade enrollment in the first three quarters of the preceding school year.
Three of Northwest Arkansas' 15 traditional public school districts -- Fayetteville, Pea Ridge and Prairie Grove -- grew by at least 3 percent this year over last year.
Prairie Grove had the largest gain by percentage at 4.1 percent, putting its total students at 1,996. Bentonville led the region in the number of students added with 355, followed closely by Fayetteville with 317.
Fayetteville has added students for 11 straight years at an average rate of 1.9 percent per year. Its growth of 3.2 percent this year is its highest in five years.
Fayetteville's growth is likely to continue. There were about 2,131 homes sold in the district in 2017, about 15 percent of which were new homes, according to Bob Templeton, president of Templeton Demographics, which did a study recently for the district.
The pressure is biggest at the elementary level. Enrollment will surpass the capacity at four of Fayetteville's nine elementary schools by 2020, according to Templeton's projections.
Bentonville's growth this year was slower than it's been in recent years, but still it exceeded 2 percent. Three of its 11 elementary schools -- Central Park, Elm Tree and Jones -- are over capacity, and Elm Tree is overflowing with 10 students going to neighboring schools. Bentonville is opening a 12th elementary school next fall.
Public charter school enrollment in Northwest Arkansas also continues to grow. There were 3,268 students enrolled in the four open-enrollment charter school districts on Oct. 1, a 25 percent increase from last fall and a 116 percent increase from five years ago.
Charter enrollment makes up 3.7 percent of public school enrollment in Benton and Washington counties. Five years ago it was 1.9 percent. Not included in those numbers are students attending one of Arkansas' two virtual schools: Arkansas Virtual Academy and Arkansas Connections Academy, which enroll about 3,600 students combined from throughout the state.
Despite the increased number of students enrolling in charter schools, there are no plans to open additional charter schools in Northwest Arkansas.
The Charter Authorizing Panel this year denied a group's application to open Focus Academy of Arts and Sciences in Bentonville. The group proposed serving as many as 900 students in kindergarten through eighth grades.
Greenland, Lincoln and West Fork -- all districts in Washington County -- saw the biggest decreases in enrollment this year.
In West Fork, enrollment remained relatively steady until about five years ago. This year's enrollment of 961 is down 3 percent from last year and nearly 20 percent from 2013. It's a troubling trend for Superintendent John Karnes.
"I don't think it has anything to do with what we're doing wrong because we're doing so many good things," Karnes said. "I think we're in a situation where we have a shortage of affordable housing. If something comes open, it's gone in a day. That is killing us down here in West Fork."
Residential and commercial development likely will blossom in West Fork if infrastructure, like access to sewer and water, is improved, he said.
In the meantime, the district is promoting the good things happening in its schools. Karnes' son Taylor is a business and computer science teacher at the high school. He gets one period during the day to promote the district through social media and other means.
John Karnes is heartened by the fact that students from outside the district -- most of them from Greenland -- are choosing to go to West Fork schools. About 22 percent of West Fork's enrollment during the 2016-17 school year was students who lived outside the district. The average for the state was 2.9 percent.
Despite dwindling enrollment, the district has maintained financial stability and has managed to downsize its staff through attrition, Karnes said.
Lincoln's enrollment fell by 40 students to 1,129, a 3.4 percent decrease from last year. That's the lowest Lincoln has seen in at least 15 years, and it's not expected to improve soon, said Superintendent Mary Ann Spears.
Staffing is locked in for the rest of the school year, but Lincoln will be taking a hard look at its projected numbers and making adjustments accordingly, she said.
"We'll have to reduce costs for sure," Spears said.
Metro on 11/04/2018