ANDERSON — Another 900 students will be lost this year, according to Anderson Community Schools officials.
During Tuesday’s meeting of the corporation’s board of trustees, ACS business manager Kevin Brown presented the 2011-2012 school year budget, which has been formulated with an anticipated loss of an additional 900 students.
According to the report, the drop in enrollment will result in a loss of $5.7 million in funding. The projection marks ACS’ seventh straight year of declining enrollment.
According to the report, ACS had 20,100 students in 1971. This year, the district anticipates a total enrollment of 7,200 students.
The loss in enrollment over the past two years has largely been attributed to new state laws that allow students to transfer to neighboring school districts without paying tuition. This year, the district will also lose students to a new state voucher program that enables low-income students to use state-funded vouchers to pay for a private school education.
On Monday, parents who remain confident in the district enrolled their students for the fall term at Anderson Elementary School.
Enrolling his 5-year-old son, Thurman, at the school, parent Brian Ball said he is certain that his child will receive a quality education at ACS.
“I went to ACS all my life and I was an assistant teacher here,” he said.
Grandparent Brenetta Brooks filled out paperwork to enroll her granddaughter, Laniya, 6, at the school, and said she’s aware that many parents are pulling their students from the district, but she won’t. “I don’t have a problem with ACS.”
Trina McGrady said she prefers ACS over other districts. “I like Anderson schools. I went to Lapel for high school. I like Anderson teachers better.”
The drop in enrollment at ACS over the past two years has meant significant reductions to the district’s teaching staff. ACS has lost 304 full-time staff members since 2009, and 175 of them were classroom teachers.
Brown said the budget will level out in coming years thanks to layoffs and school closures. By 2012, the deficit will be $200,000, he said, compared to multi-million deficits that had been projected prior to budget cuts.
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