Leavenworth USD 453 officials reported Oct. 13 that head‑count enrollment fell by 142 students from the previous year, a decline district staff said will reduce general‑fund and supplemental revenue by about $1,113,000.

“As you can see, we are down a 142 students compared to last year,” Amy Sloan, a district staff member who presented the enrollment update, told the board. Sloan said the figure is a head count, not full‑time‑equivalent (FTE), and that district staff had scrubbed the data before presenting it to trustees.

The drop was part of a steady five‑year decline the presentation showed. Sloan highlighted that two school sites—Richard Warren Intermediate and the district’s virtual school—saw slight enrollment increases even as total enrollment declined. Sloan also said the district now has 296 students who do not reside in the district attending Leavenworth schools (a combination of previously grandfathered nonresident transfers and new nonresident enrollments).

Board members and staff discussed how the change affects staffing and class sizes under board‑set capacity and class‑size ratios. Sloan said district staff used last year’s enrollment rolled up by grade to calculate open seats and noted that some buildings were already above the board’s published ratios, prompting personnel changes reflected on the staffing report the board later adopted.

The district’s career and technical education center, the Pioneer Career Center, also reported higher head count than the previous year. Sloan said the center’s total fall/spring enrollment counts duplicated some students across semesters; the distinct student count was lower than the summed semester total.

Finance staff also ran estimated fiscal impacts. “As you can see at the general fund, Miss Beth calculated this for us. The difference would be about 1,100,000.0 that we're losing because of our enrollment drop…1,113,000 that we're losing,” Sloan said, referencing the general‑fund and supplemental revenue impact only.

In response to the enrollment trend, the board’s administrative staff recommended commissioning an enrollment study. Board member Josh Rood said such studies typically take about 90 days and can cost, based on prior work, roughly in the mid‑teens of thousands of dollars. “The cost was 15,500 for the enrollment study…that was in 2019. So it's probably gonna be right at 20,000,” Rood said. He added that if a vendor’s proposal exceeds the board’s informal spending limit, staff would bring it back for formal action.

Why it matters: enrollment counts drive state funding allocations and staffing decisions; the district staff said the head‑count decline directly affects this year’s budget planning and staffing assignments.

Next steps: staff said they will solicit proposals for an enrollment study and will return with a recommendation and contract terms if the estimated cost would require board approval.