Nathan Straus
Jacksonville Daily Progress
JACKSONVILLE —
Jacksonville Independent School District has declared an increase of around 153 students in the enrollment numbers of the 2010-2011 school year against the 2009-2010 school year. District Superintendent Dr. Joe Wardell said this puts the district at about 4,948 students overall.
“I think this says if you have a quality school district people will want to keep coming,” Wardell said.
He also said because of the increased student load, Fred Douglass Elementary School has added two new classrooms and moved back lunch time.
“One was an office space we moved people out of,” Wardell said. “It’s a bit of a smaller classroom, but we’ll be able to make it with the space this year. Those are the last two available classrooms that we’re aware of anywhere in the district.”
Wardell added the elementary school must now start lunch at 10:05 a.m., rather than last year’s 10:10 a.m., in order to move everyone through.
Assistant Superintendent of Instruction and Curriculum Judy Terry said the enrollment figures are looking good and added the school is prepared to take on the extra students.
“We’re looking at it (the classes and enrollment) every single day,” Terry said. “It’s good to have that problem.”
Terry said increases of over 100 students from one year to the next are the norm at JISD and added steady growth was forecast by a recent JISD demographics study.
According to district records, Jacksonville High School claims the biggest chunk of the students at 1,122. Fred Douglass Elementary and East Side Elementary have the most students of the elementary schools at 667 and 674, respectively. Nichols Intermediate School and Jacksonville Middle School have similar counts at 736 and 728, respectively.
