First projections show NV enrollment up

Early projections that enrollment is up at Nodaway Valley Community Schools this school year, according to information from Superintendent Dr. Pam Stangeland.

Stangeland shared her projections with the school board during their meeting last Wednesday. Officials are still combing through the certified enrollment report, which was gathered Oct. 1 and is due today (Wednesday, Oct. 15).

According to the Iowa Association of School Boards’ definition, certified enrollment is an annual snapshot of a district’s resident students, taken on the first day of October, and is used to determine funding for schools.

“[These few days] is just an opportunity for us to make sure all of our data is aligned. I’ll be asking my administrative team to take a look at their data,” Stangeland said. “In addition to that, I believe our numbers are going to be up this year with our 52 students coming from Orient-Macksburg. I’m excited to see our final numbers with our growth.”

If final numbers show increased enrollment, that would be a reversal of last year’s story, when the district was down 29 students.

The last 10 certified enrollment counts show the district’s enrollment has dwindled slightly over that time period, but it also hasn’t changed very much. In that time frame, the highest enrollment was 664.3 in 2023-24 and the lowest was 615.5 in 2021-22. Nodaway Valley’s certified enrollment count in 2015-16 was 660. Last year’s number was 635.1.