OAK RIDGE SCHOOLS SEE INCREASE IN STUDENTS

OAK RIDGE -- A significant enrollment increase at Oak Ridge School District was not reflected in the district's annual report card released Dec. 1.

The report card, a self-examination performed annually by the school district, details financial and educational information from the previous school year.

Data included in the report reflects the number of students counted for the fall benchmark, an annual head count of students recorded on the last Wednesday in September.

Superintendent Cheri Fuemmeler said enrollment grew by some 12 percent from the 346 students enrolled by the fall benchmark.

"By the time we got to the end of the year we had increased it about 12 percent up to 376 students," said Fuemmeler.

"We had a large kindergarten class come in and a smaller graduating class than we normally have."

Fuemmeler said she was pleased with her overall report. Besides the increase in enrollment, a large number of graduating students performed well on the ACT exam and went into post-secondary education, the military or other employment.

Fuemmeler said the district has worked hard in previous years to reduce class sizes. Enrollment growth enabled school officials to add additional sections for some grade levels for the first time last year.

The move was enough to reduce the student to classroom teacher ratio to 18 to 1, just below the state average of 19 to 1.

"We split two grades in the elementary and three in the high school," Fuemmeler said. "More courses means employing more teachers."

Additional teachers in the district was one factor effecting a reduction in the average years of experience for teachers from 20 to 18. Other factors included the hiring of some less-experienced teachers and retirements by veteran teachers.

The district's average teacher salary of $25,481 did not change much from previous years. The average teachers salary for the state is $34,806.

"In spite of our salary differences, we are able to attract both veteran and new teachers to our district," Fuemmeler said.

"The average years of experience has dropped a little, but I think that's going to be even more prevalent over the next few years as a large wave of teachers nationwide reach retirement age."