RUSSELL, Pa. – Through the first five days of the 2023-24 school year, the Warren County School District enrollment was already below that of the 2022-23 school year, and is expected to decrease even more before October.
As of Sept. 6, enrollment for the WCSD was 3,873 which is 38 students lower than the official 2022-23 enrollment (3,911). WCSD Superintendent Amy Stewart told the WCSD Board of Directors during its Sept. 11 meeting that she expects the 2023-24 enrollment figures will decrease even more before the official number is released in October.
“Our official enrollment number for the year gets locked in on Oct. 1 and this is a snapshot,” Stewart said. “We’re already below where we were last year. But what will happen for those of you in the audience who don’t know that day five enrollment number is falsely higher than what it will be because we don’t drop students from enrollment until after the 10th day. Everybody tells us when they move in, they don’t always tell us when they move out. That’s how it works. So then that number will assuredly drop, that 3,873 number will be lower.”
Though district-wide enrollment is down, the number of students attending the Warren County Career Center has increased. The WCCC has 63 more students this year than it did last year.
“The 23-24 total Career Center enrollment is 361 students and that is a positive gain of 63 students more than we had in the 22-23 school year,” Stewart said.
SENSORY ROOM PURCHASED FOR WAEC
The board approved the use of $77,568 worth of ESSER funds for Fun and Function, LLC to create a sensory room for the Warren Area Elementary Center.
“We have purchased quite a bit of sensory items for sensory rooms at Youngsville Elementary, Beaty, WAEC, Eisenhower, Sheffield, so all of the schools have sensory items, and some have a little more,” WCSD Director of Pupil Services Dr. Patricia Mead said. “There are programs there. This is really coming out of COVID and the kids not being in school. We all have seen an increase in that anxiety and with the little smaller children our goal is to teach them some of the skills to cope with their feelings.”
Mead stressed that this sensory room will not be for crisis intervention, but used by all students for planned breaks.
“This is not a crisis response. It’s not for trauma intervention. It is for plan breaks that would occur regularly for all students, not just children with IEPs,” Mead said. “So we have children with 504 plans and children also have multiple disciplinary team intervention plans so they would all have access to the program.”
OTHER BUSINESS
• The board approved several new teacher hires, including at YEMS and Beaty. The list can be seen here. See Here
• The board approved the bid of Rick Ristau to purchase the former Pleasant Township Elementary School for $27,500. Ristau’s bid was the highest among three submitted. See Here
• The board approved the resignations of Youngsville High School softball coach Scott Ishman, as well as athletic trainer Courtney Skarzenski. See Here
• The board approved a dual credit agreement with Eisenhower High School and the University of Pittsburgh. See Here
