October 1 enrollment: South Kingstown reports small decline in in‑district residency, cohort stability noted
Summary
Superintendent Pedraza reported October 1 enrollment figures: 2,173 in‑district resident students (a decline of 32 since last year) and a total of 2,471 students in-district or receiving district services. The administration said cohorts are generally stable and highlighted follow-up work on CTE and homeschool counts.
Superintendent Pedraza presented the district’s October 1 enrollment snapshot and cohort-tracking chart, reporting a total in-district residency of 2,173 students, a decline of 32 from the prior year. Including students who receive services while enrolled out-of-district, the superintendent said the district impacts 2,471 students in total.
The superintendent said kindergarten and several early-grade cohorts were stable or slightly larger than projections and that the district’s K–5 enrollment exceeded Nasdaq projections by 21 students; middle school exceeded those projections by nine students and high school by 13. He said the cohort drop from grade 8 to 9 remains the largest anticipated change as some students choose charter, vocational or out-of-district options.
Administration flagged several items for follow-up: (1) re-running CTE counts to confirm a filtering error and report corrected numbers, (2) providing October 1 and end-of-year homeschool counts (administration said it will follow up and that staff have been contacting homeschool families about required annual notifications), and (3) continuing to monitor out-of-district placements, services-only enrollments and special-education transitions.
Committee members said the high-school retention numbers (a smaller-than-expected dip into grade 9) are encouraging and noted the new MET satellite campus may affect future out-of-district placements. The superintendent said he would return with corrected CTE totals and homeschool figures at the next report.
