With 4,762 k-12 students at the five elementary schools, middle and high schools, the Port Washington School District is 142 students below its projection of 4,904 formulated in 2000 for the 2004-2005 school year. (Note: The 4,762 count does not include pre-k, which adds another 62 pupils for this school year.) Comparing this year's enrollment with that of the same time last year, we come up with the following increases and decreases in enrollment: 15 fewer students in the pre-k through 5 grades, reflecting September '03's number of 2,324 to September '04's 2,309; nine fewer in grades 6-8, 1,114 in 2003 and 1,105 in 2004; and 44 more pupils in the high school with 1,366 in '04 and 1,410 in '05.

The above figures for '04-'05 do not include other students in the district. For example, this year 7 students will receive home instruction. Last year, this figure was 14. Another category of students not included in the above figures are exceptional children placed out of the district, who totaled 79 last year, and 78 this year. Residential placements increased this year from four to six.

It is interesting to note that a number of students left the district by the end of school last year. The enrollment as of June 11, 2004 reports eight fewer students in grades k-5, 12 fewer in the middle school and 23 fewer at Schreiber; and an increase in pre-k from 65 to 79 students during that same period.

The projections and actual enrollments by grade level are as follows:

Pre-K: Projections did not include this grade level/Actual-62

Kindergarten: Projection-365/Actual-358

First: Projection-359/Actual-356

Second: Projection-371/Actual-347

Third: Projection-419/Actual-387

Fourth: Projection-398/Actual-402

Fifth: Projection-415/Actual-397

Weber Middle School-

Sixth: Projection-351/Actual-353

Seventh: Projection-398/Actual-372

Eighth: Projection-407/Actual-380

Schreiber High School-

Ninth: Projection-384/Actual-391

Tenth: Projection-376/Actual-356

Eleventh: Projection-364/Actual-355

Twelfth: Projection-297/Actual-306

Of interest to many readers are the class sizes. The class size policy approved by the board and revised on December 16, 2003 reads as follows:

Optimum class size for pre-K is 16 with an optimum range of 15-17 and a maximum class size of 18.

For primary grades K-2 the optimum class size is 17, with an optimum range of 14-20 and a maximum class size of 21. For the new school year, kindergartens report 19 sections, 1 at 15 pupils, 1 at 16, 4 at 17, 7 at 18, 1 at 19, 1 at 20, 3 at 21, and 1 at 22. (plus 9 special ed. students)

First grades report 18 sections with the following class sizes: 3 at 17, 3 at 18, 5 at 19, 3 at 20, 3 at 21 and 1 at 22. (plus 11 special ed. students)

Second grades report 18 sections as follows: 1 at 16, 3 at 17, 4 at 18, 3 at 19, 2 at 20 and 5 at 21. (plus 6 special ed. students)

For intermediate grades 3-5 the optimum class size is 19, with an optimum range of 16-22 and a maximum class size of 24. This group has 18-3rd grade sections, 20-4th grades and 19-5th grades with the following class sizes: 1 at 16; 9 at 18; 9 at 19; 10 at 20; 14 at 21; 8 at 22, 5 at 23 and 1 at 24. There are 10 special education students in grade 3, 6 in grade 4 and 12 in grade 5.

For middle school grades 6-8 the optimum class size is 20, with an optimum range of 16-24 and a maximum class size of 26. For high school grades 9-12 the optimum class size is 20, with an optimum range of 16-24 and a maximum class size of 28. With all the various disciplines, these categories have hundreds of classes. Personnel Director Ed Sallie told us that most of the class sizes are within the established ranges, "though there are a few classes that are over," he noted.