School enrollment around Calhoun County is down for the third consecutive year with the biggest decrease currently at Bruce Schools.
Overall, Calhoun County Public Schools are down from 2,535 students reported at this time last year to 2,516 today. It should be pointed out that school enrollments this early in the year change daily and official counts won’t take place until October.
The school district is showing 123 students fewer than it had at the beginning of the 2014-15 school year.
Bruce Schools are down from 993 last year to 964 currently. Bruce High School is showing 381, Bruce Elementary 330 and Bruce Upper Elementary 253. The upper elementary is an 11 student increase from last year while the other two schools are showing slight decreases.
Calhoun City Schools show 853 currently enrolled, compared to 858 last year. Calhoun City Elementary is the largest with 356, followed by Calhoun City Middle School at 257 and Calhoun City High with 240. Those figures represent a slight drop for the elementary numbers while the middle and high schools are slight increases.
Vardaman Schools are up 15 students this year with a total of 699.
Vardaman Elementary is reporting 396, that’s the largest number at one school in the county, and Vardaman High 303.
Calhoun Academy is nearly equal with last year with 125 students enrolled as of late last week. They reported 130 at this point last year.
Headmaster Donald Pendergrast said they had enrolled new students every day last week and that was likely to continue for a while. Last week was the first week of school for the academy.
If the school doesn’t climb above the 130 mark, it would mark the seventh consecutive year of a student decrease for the school which serves grades K3-12th.