The Madison School District has published it’s “Third Friday September” 2008 enrollment counts. Total enrollment is 24,189; down slightly from 24,268 in 2007. The District’s newest school: Olson Elementary, opened with 273 students.
45% of MMSD students are classified as low income (43% in 2007; 39% in 2005).
Related: a look at enrollment changes in suburban Dane County schools.
The two schools slated to close in 2007 (but later reversed): Lapham and Marquette elementary have the following enrollments:
| 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | |
| Lapham | 229 | 219 | 231 | 219 |
| Marquette | 221 | 207 | 232 | 225 |
Please note that Lapham and Marquette now share space with alternative high school programs and an early childhood center for school-age parents in the SAPAR program.
The agreements to share space were part of the deal that kept those schools open. By making that move, we were able to achieve cost savings because the alternative programs had previously been in rented space.
I would like to see how MMSD enrollment compares with total number of school age children in the MMSD enrollment area.
My guess is that MMSD has been losing an increasing percentage of students over the past 10 or 20 years. I am told by homeschooling friends that the home school population has increased, and also new private schools have started in the last decade, such as Country Day.
Madison is growing. I would think there should be no drop in enrollment from 2007 to 2008. Even if this is a slight drop, it should have been going the other way. How is this decrease explained?