There's a strange phenomenon going on in Jordan School District, says Superintendent Raymond W. Whittenburg. Nearly 500 students are missing.
The students were included in Jordan's enrollment predictions for this school year.Teachers may be reassigned to different schools or class levels if "missing students" don't turn up by Monday, Whittenburg told members of the district's board of education.
It's doubtful, however, that any teachers will be let go. The number of teachers hired is generally conservative, the administrator said.
Whittenburg is not exactly sure why there is such a dramatic drop in the number of students. Although many new homes are being built in Jordan District, the housing is not yielding the number of students anticipated.
The number of "missing students" became apparent on the fifth day of year-round school when the number of students attending 24 schools, kindergarten through sixth grade, totaled 23,175.
That figure for first-through-sixth grades was 600 below the estimate. But 100 more kindergartners than had been expected showed up. These figures included three of the four year-round tracks. The fourth-track students will begin year-round school Monday.
Officials can only speculate on why figures were off by 500:
- Maybe the kids who left on vacation didn't come back to school on time.
- Perhaps there were more families who moved out of the district than had been anticipated.
- Maybe those moving into new homes have fewer kids.
- Perhaps there were lots of kids out because of illness.
The real test of the accuracy of predictions will be on Monday, when the fourth track begins year-round school, says Patty Dahl, Jordan District spokeswoman.
"When we take a count of that track, then we'll know the actual enrollment," Dahl said.
If the same pattern of "missing students" continues when traditional school begins Aug. 29, "then we'll know there's something going on that's worth taking note of," Dahl said.
On Aug. 29, students who attend 14 middle schools and seven high schools will begin school.
"We had expected a fairly flat growth rate in the elementary schools, but even fewer students than expected showed up. In the middle school and high schools, we are expecting significant growth," Dahl said.
There was a huge enrollment crunch five years ago. That bulge of students is progressing through the system. In the past few years, the incoming numbers of kindergartners has been twice the size of the graduating classes.
Jordan District is the second largest of Utah's 40 school districts with approximately 71,300 students.