Returning Students May Grow Melrose Schools Enrollment Even More

MELROSE, MA — The school district is expecting to accommodate nearly 200 more students this fall than last, according to projections revealed during a recent School Committee meeting.

Superintendent Julie Kukenberger shared the information compiled by Student and Staff Infomation Coordinator Brittney Ferguson at the June 22 meeting — the School Committee's first in-person since the pandemic and first since the school year ended.

The upcoming school year's projected enrollment is 3,887, which is 183 more than last year. Families often come and go during the summer, but it's expected that number will increase.

While growth is certainly nothing new at Melrose Public Schools, this fall will likely see the return of dozens of students who were formerly in the district but learned somewhere else last year due to the pandemic. In fact, a memo says as many as 193 students of the 375 who withdrew last year may choose to return to the district.

"There are more students returning to the district every day," Kukenberger said.

Kukenberger said the enrollment took a hit after the district announced its return-to-instruction plan in the late summer. The plan included delaying in-person return for a month and hybrid and fully remote models after that.

The following graph shows enrollment data as of June 16. See more information in page 112 of the meeting agenda.

The information also tried to capture where the students who withdrew last year went.

"The pandemic certainly played a significant role in the number of withdrawals experienced," the memo reads.

Of the 375 students who withdrew, 170 of them moved out of Melrose — but that's not exactly what it sounds like. Some returning students are coming back from a year in a second home in another district — even another state, Kukenberger said — where they attended school for just last year. (Those students are included in "new students" in the second graph below.)

Not all students have been placed yet, as the district expects more movement to come.

"We'll keep talking to you about enrollment, it's going to be a really, really important data source for us to monitor," Kukenberger said, adding month-by-month enrollment data will be available throughout the year.

Mike Carraggi can be reached at mike.carraggi@patch.com. Follow him on Twitter @PatchCarraggi. Subscribe to Melrose Patch for free local news and alerts and like us on Facebook