Little Rock School Board members have received the Oct. 1 enrollment figures, considered the “official” count. Total enrollment is down over last year by 847 students, or a little more than 3 percent. (This will represent a drop in state base funding of nearly $5 million.) The percentage of black students, long a marker of success or failure of the district in desegregation efforts, held steady at every grade level, 68.3 percent overall. But there was a drop of 413 white students, offset by an increase of 157 students of “other” racial identifications.
Several schools had higher enrollments this year, including Central High, Pulaski Heights Junior High and Bale, Baseline, Chicot, Dodd, Forest Park, Jefferson, Otter Creek, Wakefield, Western Hill, Williams and Woodruff Elementary.