Enrollment is up in Lawrence public schools.
In numbers released Tuesday, overall enrollment is 10,702, which is 240 more than at this point last year.
The most dramatic increase in enrollment is at the Lawrence Virtual School, which saw 154 more elementary students and 60 more junior high students. Overall enrollment at LVS, an online curriculum, was 1,035, up from 815 a year ago.
Langston Hughes School's enrollment increased by 48 students, and Quail Run School's enrollment increased by 46.
Seventy-six students left Hillcrest School, the largest enrollment drop in the district. Superintendent Randy Weseman said this was because of a reshuffling of English as a Second Language programs.
"The projection is probably right on. We knew there was a decrease, and that is what we wanted," he said, adding that the Hillcrest enrollment risked becoming strained.
At Lawrence Free State High School, there are 69 fewer students than last year. Lawrence High School lost 30 students.
Weseman said the numbers were on par with what the district projected.
The numbers released Tuesday give a preliminary look at how next year's budget could be affected.
"(The numbers) go to the state, and it kind of provisionally stabilizes the budget," Weseman said. "But if the audit comes in and it's under what (the state) projected, or over, we'd get less or more (state funding), depending."
Weseman expressed some concern at the enrollment jumps at Langston Hughes and Quail Run. Langston Hughes enrollment increased by 58 in 2007, the largest increase in the district behind the Virtual School.
"We'll take a stronger look at it and take this data and tie it into the projections, and what it means for the next five years," he said. This could mean redrawing some school boundaries to maintain consistent enrollment districtwide.
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