Bigelow enrollment, and diverting Cabot 5th graders, discussed with NPS administration
NPS has published its Preliminary Enrollment Report for the 2022-2023 school year. The Report shows that students who left NPS for non-public alternatives during the 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 pandemic school years have mostly not returned to NPS. From March 2020 -to October 2022, 2,643 students withdrew from NPS, and of those, 282 have returned.
A total of 11,721 students are presently enrolled in Kindergarten through 12th grade at NPS. This figure is relatively consistent since the 2020-2021 school year and is approximately 700 students below pre-pandemic projections. The percentage of Newton children enrolled in non-public schools, including private schools and homeschools, rose to a 10-year high of 23.1%.
Related to enrollment, the NPS administration also gave a separate presentation regarding Bigelow Middle School’s declining student population, which is projected to fall under 400 over the next five years. Per NPS, Bigelow’s target enrollment is 500-530 students. The administrators proposed two potential solutions to the School Committee:
- The first is to swap feeder elementary schools such that Cabot will switch from Day Middle School to Bigelow, and Lincoln-Eliot will switch from Bigelow to Day.
- The second is to split where Cabot students go for middle school, with the western half of Cabot’s district feeding into Day and the eastern half feeding into Bigelow. This solution is not unprecedented: In 2012-2013, Cabot was split.
A decision is expected to be made for the start of the 2023-2024 school year.
The final district Enrollment Analysis Report for the current school year will be issued in December of this year. The School Committee meeting is available for replay on NewTv.
