The truth about student enrollment in Whitefish

As administrators and teachers here in the district, we know we have a mobile student population. The question becomes, just how mobile are we as a school district?

The following represents a district snapshot of the 2010-11 school year enrollment and withdrawals. All figures have been collected from our counseling and front-office records as of Sept. 13.

The numbers don't reflect the class enrollments passing through our system by grade and/or class level. This report simply identifies the mobile student population moving into and out of the district for a variety of reasons for this year only.

Schools across the state always have some student movement, depending upon location and isolation of the school system. To some surprise, Whitefish's student population is not as stable as some may think. The following represents student movement to and from our K-12 public schools.

¥ A total of 87 students have withdrawn — 23 transferred to 14 different states, three transferred to Canada, one transferred out of state to an unknown location, 44 transferred to 19 Montana districts, 12 transferred to four private schools, and four transferred to other institutions.

¥ A total of 125 students enrolled into our school district — 44 transferred from 20 different states, 10 transferred from nine foreign countries, 33 enrolled from Montana schools, 33 enrolled from private schools, and five had withdrawn and re-enrolled in the Whitefish School District.

¥ The difference between new students enrolled and students who have withdrawn is 38 more students.

The fact is we are more mobile than some of us think we are. We teach all children. We have a diverse population giving more cause to individualize our lessons. We are a small school system that can do the job better than most.

Bottom line — we are doing an excellent job.