The biggest increases are in the high schools.
Frederick, Md (KM) There are more students attending Frederick County Public Schools this year. As of September 30th, 2018, total enrollment stands at 42,789 students, which is a net increase of 585 compared to last year. Spokesman Michael Doerrer says this comes after a few years when enrollment was flat. “It has been flat recently, but in the last couple of years it’s begun to tick up. And this year it’s a pretty significant tick up.”
There are 19,823 students in elementary school; 9.990 students in middle schools; and 12,976 students in high schools.
Doerrer says much of the student population growth has occurred in the high schools. “But we seem to have a couple of high schools that had increases last year, and the middle school level as well,” he says. Among the high schools seeing student population growth are Brunswick, Catoctin, Frederick, Linganore, MIddletown, Tuscarora and Walkersville. Enrollment increases were also recorded at Crestwood, Middletown, West Frederick and Windsor Knolls Middle Schools. Some middle schools saw declines in the student population.
Doerrer says these statistics help the school system determine where it needs to provide more resources to handle the growing population. “School funding is calculated using the number of students in the school system. That has an impact on staffing levels, all kinds of programming issues across the school system,” he says.
It also determines where new schools need to be constructed, or additions to current school buildings. “And that also informs the effort of our planners both in the school system and countywide planners where do we need to look to add capacity,” says Doerrer.
He also says there are certain growth areas in the county which have been identified. “The Oakdale feeder; that’s an area of growth. . Areas of the city, where we just opened Butterfly Ridge. The Urbana area where we’re just working on renovating Urbana Elementary and then opening Sugarloaf Elementary,” he says.
By Kevin McManus