The Enterprise City Schools are experiencing strong enrollment growth this year, increasing by nearly 200 students.
According to numbers released by Superintendent Jim Reese, the city school system gained 198 students over this time last year. The growth appears to be concentrated at the elementary and high school levels, with 87 more students in Enterprise elementary schools and 97 more students at the high school. The city's middle schools gained only 14 students overall.
The Enterprise City Schools have experienced enrollment growth of about 125-150 students per year for the last nine years.
Reese credited economic and population growth in the city as the root of the school system's enrollment growth. He said the big growth at the high school was likely caused by the newly constructed high school's opening.
Reese said the school system has had to hire some more full-time and part-time teachers to handle the additional students. No further construction is being planned at this point. Reese said expansion at the middle school level may be necessary at some point.
The Enterprise City Schools' demographics are: 7 percent Hispanic, 2 percent Asian, 26 percent black and 65 percent white. Reese said some of the city system's growth can be attributed to the city's growing Hispanic population. Reese said the city schools have not been as affected by mass defections of white students to private schools as other systems have.
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