The New Paltz Central School District (NPSCD) has seen another decline in its student population, said Superintendent Stephen Gratto last week.
“We are down about 25 students from last year, which puts us at 1,750,” Gratto said during a school board meeting held on Wednesday, September 20.
That decline is in line with the minor reductions of the past few years following a precipitous drop over the previous decade. The NPCSD saw a modest decline in enrollment between 2000-01 and 2010-11 from 2,391 to 2,245. But the drop accelerated over the next decade, falling to 1,773 in the 2022-23 school year.
In March of this year, Gratto said his district saw their enrollment decline accelerate during the Covid-19 pandemic and isn’t sure whether they’ll get those students back.
“Perhaps some will return as Covid recedes, but there’s no real indication that that will happen,” he said. “We’ve definitely got a situation where we face a difficult, challenging budget season, and so we have to look at everything to find ways to balance the budget, and our decrease in enrollment certainly has to be something we consider as we look at the budget.”
Faced with a tax levy increase capped at 1.23 percent, one of the lowest in the region, the NPCSD balanced the 2023-24 budget in part by addressing its declining student population, cutting four elementary school teachers, four special education teachers, one administrative position, and two teaching aides from the original budget draft. Further savings were found by not filling vacant positions.
Voters in the district overwhelmingly approved the$71,428,660 spending plan by a margin of 1,012-274, and they may be relied upon to make a similarly difficult decision next year.
The NPCSD is not alone among local school districts seeing waning student enrollment figures, though that trend is countered by increased population statewide. According to the U.S, Census Bureau, the population of New York State hit an all-time peak in 2020, surpassing the 20 million mark for the first time after a 3.31 percent jump from the previous year. The state first cracked the 19 million mark for the first time in 2000, up from 17,566,754 two decades earlier, and has never dropped below that mark since.
Ulster County’s population is also on the rise. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the population in the county was 181,687 in 2020, inching closer to its original peak of 183,174 in 2008, after which it steadily dropped to 177,933 in 2019, its lowest number since 2000. Experts credit the jump in 2020 to urban dwellers abandoning New York City during the pandemic.
But if the population in the county is up, why is student enrollment down? In part, it’s because Ulster County is trending older over the past two decades, notably among school age children. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there were 9,729 children aged 0-4 in the county compared to 7,874 in 2020. And while there were 36,764 children between the ages of 5-19 in Ulster County in 2000, that number fell to an estimated 29,000 in 2020.
According to Gratto, student enrollment in New Paltz by grade appears to reflect countywide demographics, at least between elementary and high school. The district currently has 93 kindergartners, 95 first graders, and 102 second graders. At the high school, there are 170 sophomores, 148 juniors, and 192 seniors.
Even with an increase in pre-K students from 18 to 54 this year, Gratto said another potentially larger drop in overall student population is likely.
“If we only bring in100 kindergartners…which is typical of what we’ve been doing lately, we’re looking at another drop of 50 to 100 students next year,” he said.
School officials and the Board of Education have pledged to continue to address the decline by ensuring the budget reflects student enrollment while giving those students the best education they can receive.
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