Growth and Capacity October 2015

By Dr. Heather Cordie

Sherwood School District teachers and staff welcomed new and returning students the day after Labor Day, on September 8, 2015. We were excited to have students and staff back in buildings with all the energy that they bring! We have begun 2015-16 with the largest enrollment ever, with 5,130 students attending Sherwood schools. This in an increase of 140 students over last year’s enrollment for the District. New attendance boundaries for elementary and middle schools are in place as a result of the boundary adjustment process that was completed throughout the 2014-15 school year. The adjustment was critical in order to distribute the enrollment numbers across schools and help to accommodate for further growth. I wish to again thank the members of the Boundary Adjustment Committee who volunteered so much of their time during that process. When anticipating enrollment changes, we monitor historical grade progression as well as demographic and development trends within attendance boundaries. While we do not expect enrollment growth to increase at the rates we experienced prior to pre-recession levels, we presently do not have a great deal of capacity to absorb significant annual growth for an extended period of time. For example, the present high school campus was designed for approximately 1,600 students; we started this school year with high school enrollment at 1,670. The District’s administration and Board of Directors are continuing discussions on how best to plan for future growth while maintaining the spatial adequacy and educational excellence of our existing schools. The District recently commissioned a comprehensive facilities assessment which identified items for consideration in order to maintain or improve quality learning environments in all schools for our students over the next 10 years or more. The Board of Directors and District leaders will be developing options to accommodate the needs of current and future students, and the facilities assessment will be one of those resources that will assist in guiding those efforts. As always, we will keep you apprised of the conversations that ensue, and will take advantage of opportunities to reach out to all stakeholders so that we can incorporate feedback into the decisionmaking process.