By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
The Hays USD 489 school board on Monday saw preliminary enrollment numbers for the 2026-27 school year.
Enrollment dropped from 3,184 full-time equivalent students to 3,071—a 3.68% decrease—in grades pre-kindergarten through 12th.
This excludes virtual and KAMS students.
Ron Wilson, superintendent, attributed the decline to lower grades, especially kindergarten.
The number of kindergarteners dropped from 204 to 164 students, while the largest classes are in the high school.
Wilson said schools across the state are dealing with declining enrollment.
“So some of the factors we are experiencing are some lower birth rates that are really connected to the pandemic,” Wilson said. “As we were going through the pandemic, as I've said before, kids that came into kindergarten this year were kids who were born during the pandemic or conceived during the pandemic.”
Wilson said he anticipated this dip in enrollment would be temporary.
While births in the county hit a 10-year low in 2021, they hit a 10-year high in 2023, with more than 100 more babies born in the county.
Wilson said he expects enrollment to rebound when children born in 2023 and after enter the local school system.
However, the decline will likely have short-term budget consequences.
Kansas public schools are funded based on enrollment. Districts can use the highest enrollment in the past two years for state per-pupil funding.
However, next year the drop will likely reflect a decrease in funding.
Chris Hipp, assistant superintendent for business, said a temporary decrease in enrollment likely will not mean a decrease in expenses.
He gave the example of losing four students from a kindergarten class. That could mean a loss of about $25,000 in per-pupil funding.
However, the district’s expenses don’t decline by $25,000. The district still has to provide a teacher, bus routes and cooks, among many other things, for the remaining students.
Hipp said the district tries to make cuts through attrition during these times and then backfill when enrollment rebounds.
“I think we're at the dip, and we will get through. It just takes some strategy and some willpower to do that,” he said.
Hipp said if enrollment doesn’t increase next year, the district will see a 3% across-the-board budget decrease.
If the Legislature increases base funding or increases the amount going into special education funding, that could offset some of the budget decrease.
Wilson said there has also been a trend of more parents homeschooling.
He said some of this has been faith-based or hybrid schooling.
Wilson said Hays USD 489 needs to show homeschool families the value of education in the district.
“We just need to make sure our families understand that upfront this is a great place to come to school,” he said.