Mobile County school system sees dropping enrollment

MOBILE, Alabama -- The Mobile County school system has lost 916 students this year, bringing its enrollment to 60,946, according to figures that the district must provide annually to the Alabama Department of Education.

That means the state’s largest school system will lose nearly $4.5 million in state funding next year, based on the its enrollment 20 days after Labor Day in 2011, compared to 2010.

Meanwhile, Baldwin County schools gained 575 students, bringing its total to 28,319, according to that district’s report.

Overall, enrollment in Alabama’s public schools is down by 3,000 students this year to 741,058. Enrollment of both black and white students is down, while numbers for Hispanic, Asian, Indian and multi-race students are all up, as of Oct. 4.

Mobile County still remains the largest school district by far, with the second-largest district, Jefferson County, having about 36,000 students. Baldwin County is the fifth-largest district in the state, now trailing Shelby County, outside Birmingham, by just 113 students.

Much of Mobile County’s enrollment loss can be attributed to the district this summer ending its contract with an outside company to run a Drop Back In Academy. That company, Alternatives Unlimited Inc., actively recruited dropouts for its program, which provided online classes and a chance to earn a high school diploma.

Last year, 461 students were officially enrolled.

Alternatives Unlimited received about $4 million in state funding over two years, but only 105 students actually graduated. So, the school system — which received 10 percent of the company’s earnings as an administration fee — shuttered the program and now runs its own program, internally. Called the Phase II Academy, it has 94 students.

That difference of 367 students accounts for about 40 percent of the county’s enrollment drop.

Not counting the Drop Back In figures, Mobile County’s regular schools lost a total of 502 students.

Some of that can still be attributed to Saraland splitting from the county school district in 2008. Satsuma High has lost students every year as a result of the split. This year, which is the last year that the county is allowing any Saraland residents to attend Mobile County schools, Satsuma shrank by 21 percent, enrolling 694 students.

Chickasaw and Satsuma are planning to separate in August, which should result in a loss of another 2,000 students for Mobile County.

Continuing a trend of westward migration, schools east of Interstate 65 tended to lose more students than schools in west Mobile County. Schools with the biggest losses were Washington Middle in Mobile’s Toulminville community, and Williamson High in Mobile’s Maysville community. Those schools lost about 29 percent apiece.

Both Washington and Williamson lost some students under a provision of the federal No Child Left Behind Act that requires some underperforming schools to offer transfers to better-performing schools.

Terrence Mixon, Mobile County schools executive director of student support services, said district officials are researching other reasons for the declines.

Mobile County schools Superintendent Roy Nichols said some inner-city schools have lost students as public housing areas have been being torn down and renovated.

There are some concerns that Mobile County Training School, a 240-student middle school in Plateau, is getting too small to be viable, he said. “It does cause us worries in those regards,” he said. “When we close schools in a community and move students into another community where they don’t get along, community disagreements may spill over into the school.”

B.C. Rain High on Dauphin Island Parkway, which has suffered declining enrollment over the years, actually had significant growth to 696 students, about a 9 percent increase. Nichols credited some improvements made at the school this year with the help of a $9 million federal grant. The school is also getting major renovations.

Meanwhile, several magnet schools — which accept students from across the county and maintain almost 50-50 racial balances — saw increasing enrollment, as part of a plan to grow those schools.

“We have had so many kids on waiting lists for our magnet schools, that we’ve been hoping to get more students in those programs,” Nichols said.

This year, Old Shell Road Magnet, an elementary school that focuses on the arts, added the fourth grade, and increased its enrollment by 108 students. Officials are looking for a new location for Old Shell Road, which has aged beyond repair. The school board will vote next week on whether to move the school to Westlawn, off Sage Avenue, in midtown Mobile. Westlawn’s enrollment went down 11 students to 455.

The Chickasaw School of Math and Science also saw a big jump of 63 students, up to 387. The school recently moved into a bigger facility to allow growth. But with Chickasaw forming a separate school system in August, Mobile County school leaders are looking for a new location for the magnet school.