By Nick Sestanovich

Benicia Unified School District’s student enrollment for the 2017-18 school year is smaller than initially anticipated. Chief Business Official Tim Rahill will discuss the current enrollment numbers at Thursday’s school board meeting.

At a meeting in February, Rahill noted that prior to the 2016-17 school year, BUSD had five to eight years of stable enrollment but had decreased by 100 students in the 2016-17 year. The district was expected to have 90 fewer students in the 2017-18 year, but when school started in August, there were actually 106 fewer students, consisting of 78 fewer at the middle and high school levels and 28 at the elementary level.

There were some areas of slight growth. At the transitional kindergarten level, five more students were enrolled than the previous year and the district’s initial projections for the current year. There was also an increase among first-graders, a very slight increase among eighth-graders and a large increase among 10th-graders.

Source: School board to discuss dwindling student enrollment