SOUTH BEND — South Bend schools’ enrollment is down nearly 700 students this year, prompting officials to consider how they’ll deal with the $4.7 million loss of state tuition support.
This fall, enrollment is 15,906, down 685 students from the 2018-19 school year, according to preliminary data released to The Tribune by the school corporation. A decade ago, the district’s schools had more than 21,000 students. This marks the sixth straight year it’s lost students.
Superintendent Todd Cummings points to private school vouchers, charter schools and competition among districts as factors in the decline.
Cummings said the loss of students is most prevalent at the district’s primary centers.
There are numerous avenues the district could pursue to address the enrollment drop, Cummings said, from restricting teacher pay increases to increasing class sizes, but he said he won’t speculate about those outcomes until the final numbers are posted by the Indiana Department of Education later this month.
South Bend schools spokeswoman Susan Guibert said each student brings $6,867 of state tuition support.
“We have to be innovative in our approach and ensure we are meeting students’ and parents’ needs. We have to continue to make sure we get food right, get transportation right, continue to support our world-class teachers,” Cummings said. “Those are the kinds of things that force people to choose other schools.”
Recently, the district’s food service and transportation directors resigned in the midst of problems in their departments. Those involved student lunch shortages and years-long busing problems.
Jerome McKibben, a demographer who has worked with local school districts, said 685 students “is a lot to lose for a district that size.”
As a result, he said, the administration will have to “take a hard look” at what specific grade levels and/or buildings within the district are experiencing the greatest decrease in enrollment. From there, they’ll need to evaluate where money is being spent and where they can afford to cut.
“They’ll need to be more judicial with how they allocate resources with teachers, the buildings and transportation,” McKibben said.
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