WCS Enrollment Projected To Decrease Over Next 10 Years

Enrollment at Warsaw Community Schools (WCS) is projected to decrease over the next 10 years.
Dr. Susan Brudvig, associate professor at Northern Kentucky University, presented a demographic report to the Warsaw School Board Monday.
Board President Heather Reichenbach said the important thing Brudvig provides to the school board is the school corporation’s current and long-term outlooks for enrollment.
Brudvig said WCS’ enrollment numbers have been declining, noting it has been a slow decline.
“But some thing could change that trajectory,” she said.
If the number of people who live in the school district but work outside of the county decrease, WCS’ retention of residential students could go up. If the number of people who live outside of the county but work in Kosciusko County increase, it could lead to higher enrollment of transfer students in the area.
The number of workers in the county is about 55,230. Of those, 47,525 live and work in the county. The number of people that live in the county but work outside of Kosciusko County has increased from 7,390 in 2017 to 7,700 in 2023. The number of people living outside the county but working in the county has decreased from 7,877 in 2017 to 7,335 in 2023.
At a certain level, the school district needs home construction to help maintain enrollment numbers over time, but there has to be a significant number of homes to be built, she said.
Between 2010 and 2020, according to census data, the number of occupied housing units in the school district have increased by about 10%. The number of adults living in the school district have also increased by 10% within that same timeframe, but the number of children decreased by 2%.
Increasing the number of homes in the area doesn’t necessarily translate to increasing the number of children in the area, she said. For every 100 households, Brudvig calculated there are 260 people, of which 60 are children. Brudvig said the caveat to that is those students would be replacing students who have graduated from the school corporation.
In fall 2020, WCS’ enrollment was 6,762, and this year enrollment is 6,619. Over the next 10 years, enrollment is expected to decrease by 200 students.
WCS is not alone in seeing decreases in enrollment, as Brudvig said all area school corporations are seeing decreasing enrollment. Over the past 10 years, WCS and Wa-Nee Community Schools have seen a 6% decrease. Triton has seen a 2% decrease. Manchester Community Schools has seen an 18% decrease, while Tippecanoe Valley has seen a 12% decrease. Wawasee has seen a 19% decrease and Whitko has seen a 28% decrease.
Brudvig also pointed to Claypool Elementary School, giving the most-likely and best-case scenarios for enrollment at the school. She said most likely in the next 10 years, enrollment at the school would decline to about 150 student. The best-cast scenario would be the school’s enrollment would decline, but to just under 200 students. She said she knows there have been interventions to help the enrollment at Claypool, but noted she has trouble envisioning a situation where the enrollment numbers would become stable.
Superintendent Dr. David Hoffert said the school corporation is keeping an eye on the number of students at Claypool due to the cost and equity of education between WCS’ eight elementary schools.
In other business, the board:
• Adopted its 2026 budget. The budget totals $105,241,306. The rainy day fund is $1.5 million. The debt service fund is $17,639,190. The referendum debt fund is $2.879 million. The education fund is $56,157,416. The operations fund is $27,065,700.
• Recognized Karen Loubert and Clelda Benning, who retired as bus drivers at the end of 2024-25 school year.
• Heard the Warsaw Community High School Tiger Pride Marching Band placed eighth at state.