New students sign up for a new year

Pratt Elementary School opened its doors Tuesday morning, but the flood of new students never came.

By Wednesday, the school had enrolled only nine new students on the second day of new student registration for city schools.

To the west was a different story.

Lincoln Heights Elementary School, one of three new schools opening this year in Spokane, had a swarm of new students.

So did Ridgeview and Lidgerwood, the other new elementary schools in North Spokane.

“It goes with ‘if you build it, they will come,’ ” said Lidgerwood Principal Valorie Chadwick.

And the district is hoping they do come.

Spokane officials expect to have 521 fewer students filling the hallways this year, keeping with its declining enrollment trend in recent years.

“Our enrollment is really down,” said Terri Pederson, the office manager at Pratt. “We’ve always been over 300, and now we’re down to about 260. So we’re hopeful.”

School district staff are hoping parents of new students will take the time to visit neighborhood schools this week and next week to register students before the start of school Sept. 5. Middle and high schools will begin registering new students on Monday.

The district has already hired teachers and staff based on the number of students figured into the school district budget.

“The more we can know before we open school the day after Labor Day, the better prepared our teachers will be,” said Nancy Stowell, associate superintendent for teaching and learning.

Students who register later also could be bused to other schools outside of their neighborhoods as certain grade levels fill up in some schools.

“It would be nice if kids came in nice neat bundles of 25, but they don’t,” said Steve Barnes, principal at Holmes Elementary. Barnes said the fourth-grade classes at Holmes are full, despite a schoolwide drop in enrollment.

“Holmes is following the district pattern (for enrollment),” Barnes said. “We do the best job we can to plan, but we won’t know until we see the whites of their eyes.”

On Tuesday morning, the school had an influx of about 15 new students. But by Wednesday morning, only one new student had walked through the door.

“It’s not uncommon for parents to wait until the last minute,” office manager Pam Ristau said Wednesday. “Yesterday was kind of a surprise.”