ANDERSON — By noon Monday on the first day of the new school year, Anderson Community Schools had 1,374 fewer students than a year ago.
ACS Superintendent Felix Chow said the loss of students may be less severe after last-minute registrations take place.
On Monday, the main office at Anderson High School was filled with students and parents who had failed to show up during earlier registration sessions.
The loss of students came as a surprise, Chow said.
“We thought we would get to 8,750,” he said.
There’s still time, he added.
“Oftentimes in actual attendance, in the first week of school, it’s very common to have some parents that have not taken the student in so we might have students who are coming or who have registered but have not shown.”
For sophomore Jacob Kimm, it didn’t seem like the school district had lost more than 1,300 students.
“The hallways were pretty crowded,” he said.
The first day of school at Anderson High School was also the first chance to see how combining two high schools would affect students.
“It was all right,” Kimm said.
After going to Highland High School for his freshman year, Kimm was upset to learn the high schools would be merged and Highland would become a middle school.
On Monday, his opinions hadn’t changed.
Kimm said the high school was crowded, the parking lot congested and there was simply not enough space to house the students at one site.
Anderson High School Principal Lucinda McCord estimated that Anderson High’s enrollment was 1,800 students.
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