Kindergarten students line up to go to recess Tuesday at Meadow Lane Elementary School in northeast Lincoln. Meadow Lane was one of the schools that lost students when new schools opened this year.
KENNETH FERRIERA, Journal Star
An empty third grade classroom is seen on Tuesday at Meadow Lane Elementary in Lincoln.
KENNETH FERRIERA, Journal Star
Third grade students work on grammar packets during class time on Tuesday at Meadow Lane Elementary School in Lincoln.
KENNETH FERRIERA, Journal Star
Third grade students work on grammar packets during class time on Tuesday at Meadow Lane Elementary in Lincoln. Meadow Lane was one of the schools which lost students to new buildings.
Daniele Schulzkump noticed something different when she walked into the lunchroom at Meadow Lane Elementary on the first day of school.
A sense of calm.
Thanks to the opening of Robinson Elementary School in northeast Lincoln, the school near 70th and Vine streets saw its student body drop by more than 100 kids this school year.
That meant a drastic change at Meadow Lane, which was nearing capacity. Drop off and pick up of students ran smoother, staff no longer had to share space and instead of 100 students eating lunch at a time, it was more like 80.
"That's a huge difference," said Schulzkump, Meadow Lane's principal for the past eight years.
The impact two new schools are already having on existing buildings this fall is evident in Lincoln Public Schools' yearly enrollment snapshot unveiled Tuesday, which shows growth largely stalling after a modest jump in students last year.
In total, 41,784 students from early childhood to 12th grade are enrolled at LPS as of Oct. 1, marking an increase of just 18 students from 2021, which saw enrollment rebound by more than 200 students following a year of decline because of the pandemic.
Districts are required to tally their enrollment on Oct. 1 but have until Nov. 1 to turn in the final number to the Nebraska Department of Education.
LPS originally projected a decrease of about 200 students this year based on birth data.
LPS was able to close that gap thanks to higher preschool enrollment — early childhood enrollment is up 76 students overall — and likely due to some families that moved to Lincoln, said Matt Larson, LPS associate superintendent of instruction.
"So we're actually pleased with this enrollment because it's up 18 students, but when you factor in the projected enrollment, it's actually up 200 from where it was projected," Larson said.
Kindergarten enrollment declined by about 150 students, but in general, cohorts stayed relatively the same from 2021. In some cases, class sizes even grew, including in high school, where the number of freshmen (3,272) is up significantly from last year's eighth grade class (3,099).
Tuesday's snapshot gives one of the first glimpses into the impacts the opening of Lincoln Northwest High School and Robinson have had on existing buildings, too.
The two new schools — part of the $290 million bond issue approved by voters in 2020 — drew students from other schools nearing or over capacity, lightening the burden on those buildings.
Meadow Lane and Kahoa elementary schools, which lost portions of their attendance areas to Robinson, lost 113 and 50 students, respectively. Both schools were nearing 95% capacity last year.
That shows that Robinson, built in the booming Waterford development near 104th and Holdrege streets, is doing exactly what it was designed to do, Larson said.
"It makes it easier to have more classroom space and it's also easier on the infrastructure of the school, the cafeteria, the library, crowdedness in the hallways, your ability to have (P.E., arts and technology classes)," Larson said.
While opening a new building can be hard on kids who have friends change schools, the drop in enrollment at Meadow Lane opened up crucial space for staff, Schulzkump said. The school's family services offices, for example, were previously in the hallways and interventionists and special-education staff doubled up in the same rooms.
"It's nice to downsize a bit," Schulzkump said.
At the high school level, the introduction of Northwest led to enrollment declines at Lincoln High and North Star, as officials predicted would happen when the new high school at Northwest 48th and West Holdrege streets opened.
North Star lost 170 students and Lincoln High is down 138, although both schools — which have a capacity of roughly 1,900 students — are still over 2,000.
Northeast (1,811) and Southwest (2,170) also saw slight declines, while Lincoln East — now the city's biggest high school at 2,256 students — added six students.
Officials expect that the opening of Standing Bear High School at 70th Street and Saltillo Road in 2023 will help ease overcrowding at East. Early projections show anywhere from 600 to 750 students attending Standing Bear in its first year, Larson said.
Northwest opened with 498 ninth, 10th and 11th grade students.
Although Scott Middle School lost 45 students, it still remains the city's largest (1,137) middle school. Meanwhile, Moore (739) added 93 students and Goodrich and Schoo — other middle schools approaching capacity — also saw gains.
Kooser overtook Belmont as the district's biggest elementary school, boasting 888 students after adding 67 this year.
Overall, Larson said he would anticipate a few years of slower growth based on birth projections, but other variables such as an influx of refugee families could change that.
Any growth, though, is an improvement over 2020, when LPS lost 735 students amid the pandemic, the first time in two decades enrollment had dropped.
Calls for service at schools were down compared to before the pandemic and juvenile referrals — when officer issues a citation — decreased even more.
Kindergarten students line up to go to recess Tuesday at Meadow Lane Elementary School in northeast Lincoln. Meadow Lane was one of the schools that lost students when new schools opened this year.
Third grade students work on grammar packets during class time on Tuesday at Meadow Lane Elementary in Lincoln. Meadow Lane was one of the schools which lost students to new buildings.