School enrollment figures for school districts across the state were updated recently for the 2017-2018 school year (last year) and the Whitehall School District’s total enrollment fell to 708 students. This was a drop of 50 students from the 758 enrolled during the 2016-2017 year.
The complete enrollment figures for 2017-2018 school year can be found here.
I have been tracking and reporting on the enrollment for a number of years. To put this number of 708 students into historical context I have updated my yearly enrollment chart below:
| School Year | 04-05 | 05-06 | 06-07 | 07-08 | 08-09 | 09-10 | 10-11 | 11-12 | 12-13 |
| Students | 885 | 860 | 858 | 845 | 815 | 779 | 753 | 742 | 755 |
| School Year | 13-14 | 14-15 | 15-16 | 16-17 | 17-18 | ||||
| Students | 757 | 736 | 736 | 758 | 708 |
Total overall enrollment is now down 20% since the 2004-2005 school year. While there was a short-lived increase in students between 2012 and 2017, the trend is quite persistent. The district has now reached the lowest enrollment since I have been tracking this.
During this time, local property taxes have increased every year. The Board of Education has not passed on any savings from this plummeting enrollment to the local taxpayers, in spite of increased state aid during the same time period.
For far too long this has not been discussed in planning for the district. A large building campaign has begun and another year of tax increases is being voted on. Now is the time to start planning for more enrollment decreases because that has been the trend for the last 14 years.
