News

School District Sees Rise in Enrollment for Second Straight Year

By |

With another increase expected this year, enrollment in New Canaan Public Schools is bucking recent projections that it would flatten, officials said Monday. The district now has 4,194 students enrolled for the upcoming academic year—28 more than last year and 29 more than projected, according to NCPS Director of Human Resources Darlene Pianka. (The figures do not include preschools.)

During an enrollment update to the Board of Education on Monday night, Pianka said New Canaan’s elementary schools now have 1,491 students enrolled—14 more than at the end of June—and that the district will add a kindergarten section at East School and fourth-grade section at South School to maintain acceptable class-size levels. Responding to Board member Dionna Carlson’s observation that recent projections showing a flattening in enrollment are not bearing out, Superintendent of Schools Dr. Bryan Luizzi said, “It’s not bearing out and it’s not bearing out in the region.”

“We are hearing from the towns around us that where it was bearing out, they are seeing a turnaround,” he said during the meeting, held via videoconference. “We are a little concerned about a labor shortage, so we are aggressively going into the market to shore up those long-term subs that are certified positions.

News

District Tracks Public Schools Enrollment As Realtors Anticipate High Number of Move-Ins

By |

Though enrollment for New Canaan Public Schools next academic year remains largely in line with projections, district officials say they’re in communication with local real estate professionals who are anticipating a high number of move-ins from New York City amid the COVID-19 public health emergency. 

What initially had been a discussion about high demand in the local rental market now appears to be true for prospective homebuyers, according to NCPS Director of Human Resources Darlene Pianka. “I think the general consensus is that the spring market is just starting to happen right now,” Pianka told members of the Board of Education during their regular meeting, held Monday night via videoconference. “So houses are coming onto the market in a delayed manner. Where we would have been starting the housing market in March, things slowed down for those three months and are just beginning to pick back up. Anything can happen and we are certainly watching it every day.”

The comments, made in response to a question from Board of Ed member Sheri West, came as Pianka reviewed the district’s own enrollment numbers, based largely on data verification with public school families, and compared those figures against projections from the Marlboro, Mass.-based New England School Development Council, known as NESDEC.

Board of Education

Enrollment in New Canaan Public Schools Up 59 Students This Year

By |

Enrollment in New Canaan Public Schools increased by 59 students this year, and the district now has 4,172 students from kindergarten to twelfth grade, officials said Monday. The figure is 108 students higher than projections made by a Marlborough-Mass.-based educational organization, NCPS Director of Human Resources Darlene Pianka said during the Board of Education’s regular meeting. 

Among grade levels, the three elementary schools saw the highest year-over-year increase, up 21 students from the 2018-19 academic year, and were 72 students higher than projections, Pianka said during a presentation on enrollment, New England School Development Council projections and district staffing levels. “Overall, according to our demographer, we are in a period of stable but slightly decreasing enrollment at the middle and elementary schools, with some small growth at the high school level, in general,” Pianka said at the meeting, held in the Wagner Room at New Canaan High School. “I think that we can say this is all good information and positive in terms of our enrollment and the fact that we do have a lot of new students, which you are aware of from our budget season last year. And moving forward the complexity of this will be with the NESDEC projections and our best info to estimate what our enrollment will become and to plan for that accordingly.”

Board of Ed Vice Chair Dionna Carlson that, despite the increase of nearly 60 students in the district, the Board of Ed added just 1.85 full-time equivalents to the staff for this academic year.

News

District: 116 More Students Than Projected Enrolled in New Canaan Public Schools

By |

When the academic year starts next week, New Canaan Public Schools are expecting to see 116 more students K-12 than had been projected, district officials reported Monday. 

The above-projected figure of 4,180 total students reflects higher-than-projected registration across all levels, with the elementary schools 79 students over projections, Saxe Middle School 18 and New Canaan High School 19, according to Darlene Pianka, the district’s director of human resources. The overall figure does not include pre-kindergarten. “Big numbers,” Pianka said during the Board of Education’s regular meeting, held in the Wagner Room at NCHS. The figures show that “there is clearly demand for New Canaan Public Schools,” Board Chairman Brendan Hayes said. “This is great news, I mean seeing 116 students overall greater than what we predicted is pretty amazing and remarkable,” he added.

Bryan Luizzi

District: Kindergarten Enrollments Higher Than Projected

By |

New Canaan Public Schools officials said Monday that overall enrollment expected to rise in the 2019-20 academic year, with kindergarten seeing a particularly large increase. The district as of now is expecting to get 306 kindergarteners in the fall, up from 233 last October and also up from the 247 that previously had been projected, according to Director of Human Resources Darlene Pianka. 

Kindergarten enrollments haven’t been that high for “at least six years,” Superintendent of Schools Dr. Bryan Luizzi said at the Board of Education’s regular meeting, held in the Wagner Room at New Canaan High School. “If that holds and if trends continue, I would anticipate that that will become the largest grade in our district for the foreseeable future,” he said. Overall, 61 more students are enrolled in New Canaan Public Schools for the upcoming academic year than projected last year when the Board put together its spending plan. First-grade enrollments exceed projections by 16 students, and total high school enrollments by 15, according to the data cited by Pianka.