Fort Scott schools evaluate numbers on the roll

FORT SCOTT -- Within the next few weeks, nearly 4,000 Bourbon County preschool to college-aged students will leave summer behind as they prepare for the beginning of another school year.

An estimated 1,808 USD 234 students in four schools will head to their first day of classes on Aug. 15, district officials said.

The three-day enrollment period for USD 234, which concluded Thursday, showed a preliminary enrollment count for the 2007-'08 school year of 427 preschool through fifth grade students at Eugene Ware Elementary School; 433 preschool through fifth grade students at Winfield Scott Elementary School; 385 students at Fort Scott Middle School, and about 563 students at Fort Scott High School.

These early numbers represent a decrease from actual USD 234 enrollment from the 2006-'07 school year, only because some students have yet to enroll, which they have until the first day of school to complete. For this reason, actual final enrollment numbers in the district will be somewhat higher, USD 234 Business Manager Alan Drake said.

"We actually had about 50 more (students) than last year during the three-day enrollment period, so that's a good sign," Drake said.

Eugene Ware Principal Billie Jo Drake echoed her husband's comments, adding that the number of students who enrolled this year during the three-day enrollment period increased from the same time last year. Between 40 and 70 students at Eugene Ware don't complete enrollment during the three-day enrollment period, but will instead visit the school building with their parents within the next couple of weeks to finish their enrollment, Drake said.

"A lot of people are out of town, or on vacation (this week), and we'll enroll them between now and the start of school," she said.

Final enrollment figures from the 2006-'07 school year showed that 438 students were enrolled at Eugene Ware; 455 students at Winfield Scott; 433 at FSMS; and 563 at FSHS, according to the USD 234 Web site.

USD 235 in Uniontown, which includes two schools, does not begin enrollment until Aug. 6 and 7, so preliminary enrollment figures for that district were not yet the two USD 235 schools, a slight increase from the same time the year before.

USD 235 includes West Bourbon Elementary School, a preschool through 6th grade school; and Uniontown Junior Senior High School, a 7th through 12th grade school.

About 55 St. Mary's Catholic School preschool through fifth grade students, an increase of a few students from last year, will also begin classes soon at the Fort Scott parochial school, St. Mary's Principal Krista Gorman said.

School officials with Fort Scott Christian Heights and the Christian Learning Center, two local private schools, were not available for comment on enrollment figures at those schools as of press time.