Smethport Area School District - Enrollment

Enrollment

According to the Pennsylvania Department of Education, there are 869 students enrolled in K-12 in 2010. In the 2008–2009 school year there were 957 students. The Class of 2009 had 95 students. The senior class of 2010 has 83 students. Enrollment in Smethport Area School District is projected to continue to remain below 950 through 2018. The administrative infrastructure and mandate costs per pupil are high. The district's administrative costs per pupil in 2008 was $822 per pupil. The lowest administrative cost per pupil in Pennsylvania was $398 per pupil. With limited resources, opportunities for students are limited. Consolidation of the administration, with adjacent school districts, would achieve substantial administrative cost savings. These excessive administrative overhead dollars could be redirected to improve the students' poor academic achievement, to enrich the academic programs or to substantially reduce local property taxes. Consolidation of central administrations into one would not necessitate the closing of any schools.

Over the next 10 years, rural Pennsylvania school enrollment is projected to decrease 8 percent. The most significant enrollment decline is projected to be in western Pennsylvania, where rural school districts may have a 16 percent decline. More than 40 percent of elementary schools and more than 60 percent of secondary schools in western Pennsylvania are projected to experience significant enrollment decreases (15 percent or greater).

Pennsylvania has one of the highest numbers of school districts in the nation. In Pennsylvania, 80% of the school districts serve student populations under 5,000, and 40% serve less than 2,000. This results in excessive school administration bureaucracy and not enough course diversity. In a survey of 88 superintendents of small districts, 42% of the 49 respondents stated that they thought consolidation would save money without closing any schools.