Friday, exactly one month since the start of the 2014-15 school year, was the first head count day for public schools in Indiana to begin submitting enrollment reports to the Indiana Department of Education. Wawasee’s preliminary numbers are showing a notable increase compared to the same time last year.

As a corporation, the enrollment is 3,037.7, an increase of 64.17 compared to last year. For clarification, it should be noted kindergarten students are only counted as half a student thus accounting for the numbers after the decimal points.

“The high school had the largest increase and they had a smaller senior class graduating in 2014,” noted Joy Goshert, director of instruction and curriculum for WCSC. Wawasee High School had an increase of about 29 students from 941.12 last year to 970 this year.

Syracuse Elementary School had an increase of 19.05 from 465.02 last year to 484.07 this year. The school lost a small fifth grade class last year accounting for some of the growth.

Milford School had an increase of 14.19 students from 562 last year to 576.19 this year. The middle school lost a small eighth-grade class and gained a large kindergarten class.

North Webster Elementary School and Wawasee Middle School each had very slight increases of about one student compared to last year. Goshert noted overall so far the number of kindergarten students has only increased by about four compared to last year.

Transfer students coming in to the Wawasee district have increased from 82.5 last year to 94.5 this year, an increase of 12 and accounting for some of the district growth.

Currently there are no conflicts with other school districts on claiming enrollment of a student, but that could change as other districts finalize their reports. Some students may leave without informing anyone and if that happens each district must research to find out exactly where the student should be enrolled.

Friday was only the beginning of a process officially known as average daily membership, or ADM, and which won’t be finished until Oct. 10. Having an accurate enrollment count is crucial because IDOE bases funding to schools on enrollment numbers. Another head count will occur in February 2015.