Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
Warsaw School Board heard about enrollment Monday within the corporation and each of the schools.
Warsaw Community Schools Superintendent Dr. David Hoffert showed a pictured of staff on opening day and said it’s important because when you look at the students that come into WCS schools every day, “we know that a lot is going on and it takes multiple people looking at this.”
Current enrollment is 6,552 students. Hoffert said that does mean that will be what WCS’ average daily membership (ADM) will be.
The ADM is a count of students enrolled in kindergarten through 12th grade in Indiana public school corporations and all charter schools on a particular day.
Hoffert said ADM cuts students into percentages, so if a student is only in school for half a day, they will count for a certain percentage. Virtual students are counted as a certain percentage. There are also some early graduates when December comes along.
Dr. Susan Brudvig, associate professor at Northern Kentucky University, has spoken several times to the board about where she believes WCS will be in the future as a school corporation, Hoffert said. She takes into account population and birth rates.
“We know we have a downward trend. That’s not just in Kosciusko County. That is statewide and nationwide,” he said, noting there’s a 25% decrease in birth rates.
When Brudvig last spoke to the board, Hoffert said she projected the corporation would have 6,560 students for the 2026-27 school year. The reason Hoffert said he pointed that out is for the school district to look at all factors and plan accordingly, including having the appropriate classroom and school settings.
“If we were looking at areas to watch closely, Claypool (Elementary School) is probably the number one area that we have,” he said. There are 203 students at Claypool and the high-water mark at the school was a little over 400 students.
“We’ve seen population shifts that have happened that moved from the southern part of the county to the northern part of the county,” he said. “We have seen a steep population decline that has happened in that Claypool area.”
Harrison Elementary School is another school that is being looked at. Hoffert said Harrison used to be WCS’ biggest school. Hoffert asked Board member Randy Polston what the biggest student population Harrison had when Polston was principal there. Polston estimated the school had a student population of between 710 and 720 students. Hoffert said that was before Madison Elementary moved to where it is now and some of the additions that happened in around 2010-11. Harrison has always been a school with a higher school population, but there has been some population changes that have happened in that area.
“So we’ve seen a lot of those students shift from the Harrison area actually to the Leesburg and Madison areas,” Hoffert said. “So as we’ve seen those areas grow, we’ve seen some of the other areas shift.”
On the larger side, WCS is also looking at Jefferson Elementary School. There are 500 students at the school.
“If we’re to look at capacity inside buildings, (Jefferson) is at the high 80s, which means it’s getting very close to capacity. So it’s definitely an area we’re looking at with some of the programs that are at Jefferson and then also some of the population and boundaries as we continue to move forward,” Hoffert said, adding it’s something to keep an eye on as far as efficiency and making sure the school corporation has equality of education in the school corporation.
Hoffert also mentioned there is a kindergarten class of 419 students, which is probably a little lower than expected. Going back about five years, nine months ago, Hoffert mentioned that was during the Covid-19 pandemic and people weren’t necessarily thinking about having more children and “we’re looking at that shrink of population and we’re watching that go through.” That’s something WCS is looking at as they make their projections.
Hoffert said WCS realized there are larger class sizes in the upper grades.
“Our senior class is not huge this year, but if you look at our junior, sophomore, freshman and then seventh- and eighth-grade classes, we know those are bigger classes, and as they are replenished by smaller classes, it’s where we depend on people to move in still to our community to fill in some of those gaps in some of those areas as they have in recent years,” he said.
Over the next 10 years, WCS is predicting to stay pretty even as far as student enrollment.
“Again, we’re not predicting big spikes, but we’re definitely watching where those students are at and then what is capacity inside our buildings,” he said, adding there is capacity within the schools.
Jefferson is the school sitting at the highest capacity, with most of the schools sitting at between 65% and 70% capacity. Claypool Elementary School is at about 38% or 39% capacity. Capacity can be unique due to the programming set up at the schools, but “we do have capacity at the majority of our schools right now.”
Hoffert said this has nothing to do with WCS’ teachers and the good work they’re doing or the school building or community. It’s about demographics and birth rates “and that’s hard to fix. That’s not something a school system can fix on its own,” he said.
In other business, the board:
• Heard from Aimee Lunsford, chief academic officer, about literacy and 2026 IREAD results.
WCS achieved an 89.4% passing rate, a three-percentage-point increase from 2025 and above the 2026 state average of 88.7%. The school corporation is working toward a goal of a 95% passing rate. Areas of growth include a 7% increase for general education students, a 4.5% increase for special education students and a 4.8% increase for multilingual learners.
Areas of support include an IREAD Club, a more focused summer school curriculum, kindergarten boost groups, BYC tutoring groups and a partnership with Grace College’s Center for Literacy and Learning that helps 60 students.
• Was reminded the homecoming parade starts at 5 p.m. Friday.
