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Loss Of Students Deeply Affects Florida's Schools

Tribune photo by KATHY MOORE

Teachers at Heritage Elementary are able to use this extra classroom for their materials because the school is undercapacity.

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By MARILYN BROWN | The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 8, 2009

Updated: 01/08/2009 11:17 am

All but 15 school districts in Florida's 67 counties lost students this year, and those that gained didn't add many, as this interactive map by TBO.com shows.

What started as a slowdown in public school enrollment three years ago is now the biggest drop in state history, with nearly 17,000 fewer students this school year, said Carolyn DuBard, an economist with the Legislature's Office of Economic and Demographic Research.

For years, student enrollment statewide climbed at least 40,000 annually. Then, between the 2006 and 2007 school years, the numbers fell by more than 2,000. The total decline since then is more than 30,000.

"In most districts in Florida, education is the largest employer in the county," said Bill Montford, chief executive officer of the Florida Association of District School Superintendents. "When something happens to the school district anywhere in Florida, boom, it shakes everything up."

One county, Alachua, is disputing the state number for current enrollment and has until March to submit corrections.

Hillsborough Schools is the biggest employer in the county. Instead of gaining 6,000 or more students each year and building up to a dozen new schools a year, the district saw enrollment go flat two years ago.

This year, Hillsborough lost 1,692 students – equivalent to the enrollment of a high school.

"Everything's an anomaly now," said Bill Person, Hillsborough's general director of pupil placement and support. "Everything's upside down."

Check back Sunday for more details and ways superintendents are dealing with the losses.

Reporter Marilyn Brown can be reached at (813) 259-8069.

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