Newport School District (Pennsylvania) - Enrollment

Enrollment

According to the Pennsylvania Department of Education, there are fewer than 1200 students enrolled in K-12. There were 97 students in the Class of 2009. The senior class of 2010 has 68 students. Enrollment in Newport School District is projected to continue to remain below 1150 through 2019. With limited local taxation resources, opportunities for students are limited. Consolidation of the administrations with adjacent school districts would achieve substantial administrative cost savings for people in each community. These excessive administrative overhead dollars could be redirected to improve lagging mathematics and science achievement, to enrich the academic programs or to substantially reduce property taxes. Consolidation of the central administrations would not require the closing of any schools. A new district composed of Greenwood School District and Newport School District would have a student population of 2000 with stable enrollment projected for the next two decades. Newport School District has an athletic partnership with the Greenwood High School for football, track, soccer, and wrestling.

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. Less than 95 of Pennsylvania's 501 school districts have enrollment below 1250 students, in 2007.

Over the next 10 years, rural Pennsylvania school enrollment is projected to decrease 8 percent per a report by the Center for Rural Pennsylvania.