James Mangels, Trigg County Schools’ director of student services and personnel, delivered mostly positive news during Thursday night’s board meeting — stating district attendance has opened above 95% at the start of this school year.
Mangels did say a five-year cross-section of enrollment at the district, however, paints a strange — and, frankly, inexplicable — picture.
In 2019, Trigg County had 1,926 students. In 2020, it was 1,869. In 2021, it was 1,931. In 2022, it was 1,905. And at the start of 2023, it’s 1,875.
Like a heartbeat, Mangels said the pattern has been inconsistent.
And while it is a loss of SEEK funding based on average daily attendance, Mangels added there are some really unique trends worth discussing and watching.
For starters, Trigg County’s 2019 class of eighth graders finished with 164 students. Now seniors, that class currently resides at 135 — a drop of 29 students.
Some of those have gone to other districts, due to Kentucky’s relatively-new “open borders” policy, but some of those have moved into homeschooling — something Mangels said has legally become easier and easier for families to do in the past few years.
Trigg County, he added, used to be a bit more robust as a 3A school.
Not all class trends, though, have been negative. The fourth-grade class from 2019 is up from 134 to 147 this eighth-grade year. The fifth-grade class from 2019 has bloomed from 148 to 167 this freshman season, an increase of 19 students. And the seventh-grade class from 2019 has jumped from 151 to 169 juniors in 2023.
Attendance groups are meeting twice monthly to digest truancy issues and interventions, and Mangels said this has brought some successes for certain families, while PBIS — or Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports — is becoming a campus-wide implementation.
But there are other avenues in which student population is tracked.
In other district news:
— Matt Ladd, director of operations, said turf for the co-curricular building was scheduled to arrive Friday morning, and is one of the final pieces for the facility. Furthermore, the reconstructed greenhouse and the sports practice field near Perdue are “nearly ready.”
— Current contingency for the vocational school is more than $226,000, and for the co-curricular building is just above $28,000. Ladd noted the elementary school project should have around $15,000 left in remaining funds, as well.
— A workshop for staffing and the budget was scheduled for noon, September 15, and should last about three hours.
— And the Class of 1978’s 45th Anniversary, Class of 1983’s 40th Anniversary, and the Class of 1987 have all recently convened for celebrations and/or local projects.
