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06/15/2008
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Staff photo by Andy MolloyAUGUSTA -- Three-year-old Maggie Searcy doesn't know she's part of the growing reason the city's public schools are bucking a statewide trend and local projections of declining student enrollments.
Maggie is one of Augusta Schools' incoming pre-kindergarten students, and she and the rest of Augusta's youngest students are driving a trend of increasing elementary school enrollments.
"This will be our third year of increasing numbers of kindergartners," Superintendent Cornelia Brown said. "This year, in kindergarten, we've got 182 kids. Ready to come next year, we've got nearly 200 kids. It's a three-year trend and it runs counter to all the projections, state and local."
Last year, there were about 170 kindergartners.
The number of students in the city's relatively new pre-kindergarten program is also on the rise. This year, the program has about 80 students. Nearly 100 new pre-schoolers have already been signed up by their parents for next year.
That includes curly-haired Maggie who, clutching her tiny purse last week, walked in and filled the library at Hussey Elementary School with her bold personality and joyful laughter during pre-kindergarten screening, which included tests and games meant to gauge her readiness.
"With the economy the way it is, to see the number of students rebound and grow in Augusta is great," said Maggie's dad, Fred Searcy, who, together with his wife Michelle, watched and smiled proudly as Maggie went through the screening process. "We wanted to get her into pre-K to get the fundamentals down now. So she'll be ready when it becomes kindergarten time."
The Searcys have owned their Augusta home for six years now, Michelle Searcy said. Maggie is their first child. They both work in Augusta -- Michelle works for the Department of Health and Human Services, Fred works in food service at Hussey School and as a coach at Cony High School. Fred grew up in Augusta; Michelle in Hallowell.
"We wanted to be close to our family," Michelle Searcy said of their decision to buy a home in Augusta. "And the teachers here are wonderful. They have a genuine interest in your children and children's families, too. Everyone knows each other. There's security in that. You know your child is somewhere safe."
The trend of increasing enrollment in Augusta's lower grades is contrary to both local and statewide projections.
Overall, Maine's school enrollments are going down because Maine's school-age population is declining. In 2000, 26 percent of Maine's population was school-age children; that percentage dropped to 22 percent in 2005. According to the Brookings Institution, there are 13,000 fewer students in Maine schools than a decade ago; in 2015, there will be 24,000 fewer students than in 1995.
Locally, Augusta's student population has been on a downward trend, too. In 1996, the city had 3,032 students. By 2007, that number had shrunk to 2,516.
Brown said enrollment projections Augusta Schools had done a few years ago indicated there would only be about 150 kindergartners next school year, not nearly the 200 she expects now.
So the projected trend of declining enrollment appears to be changing, starting with the lower grades and, presumably, could continue into the upper grades over the years if most of the new kindergartners stay in Augusta schools.
Brown and others speculate the city's pre-kindergarten program, begun a few years ago, could be part of the reason for increased enrollments.
She said parents may enroll their children in the free public pre-kindergarten program, find it to be a good thing, and thus keep their kids in the city's schools.
"My theory is once a family comes and gets their child (into the pre-K program), it gives them a sense of community, when they've laid down those roots like that," said Michelle Michaud, principal of Hussey Elementary school. "I really believe it helps families connect with their school and want to stay within a community."
Michelle Searcy, even though little Maggie is many years away from high school, said the new Cony High School, opened in 2006, could be a draw for some parents enrolling youngsters in Augusta.
"I think the new school might entice some parents to come to Augusta," she said. "It's a new beginning."
Brown said other factors could be high gas prices, causing people to want to live closer to where they work, or that housing in Augusta is cheaper than in some of the surrounding suburbs. But she thinks the biggest reason is the quality of Augusta's programming.
"I think it's because we have great programs and great staff," she said.
Of course, more students could very well need more teachers, and, if the trend continues, maybe more classroom space, too.
Brown acknowledged they may have to add teachers to deal with the influx of new students. She plans to talk about staffing needs with elementary school principals and have a recommendation for the Augusta Board of Education in July.
While new students may bring new expenses if more teachers need to be hired, they also bring more state funding, as the state school-funding formula is partly based on student population.
If the trend continues, Brown said they'll likely have to take another look at shelved proposals to consider new school buildings. A 2005 architect's report recommended the city look at closing both Hodgkins Middle School and Hussey, and replacing them with one or two new school buildings. Any plans to replace either of those buildings were essentially put on hold, however, due to a lack of available state aid for new school construction.
"It does provide challenges," Brown said. "If you have more students, you'll have more classrooms that need to be staffed. If this keeps going, we're looking at pretty full schools. But it's a good problem to have. You have a school system that may be growing now, instead of shrinking."
Keith Edwards -- 621-5647
kedwards@centralmaine.com
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