Enrollment takes a tumble

New Hampton’s school enrollment has dropped by more than 2 percent, the School Board learned during a meeting Monday night, but Superintendent Jay Jurrens said be believes the district has prepared itself well for the challenges that come with declining enrollment.The district’s Oct. 1 certified public enrollment was 939.58, down 2.1 percent from the Oct. 1, 2017, enrollment of 959.57. The drop in enrollment was less dramatic when it comes to the number of students New Hampton serves, which is at 962.68, down 1.5 percent from the 977.67 students it served a year ago.“It’s bigger than we expected or hoped for, but that’s rural Iowa right now and a snapshot of what’s going on in rural Iowa right now,” Jurrens said in an interview after Monday’s meeting. “Society is just so much more mobile right now that in a lot of ways it’s a moving target when it comes to enrollment.”— For more on this story, see the Oct. 19 New Hampton Tribune.