DAGSBORO — Student enrollment in the Indian River School District has decreased during the coronavirus crisis.

In preparing for eventual pandemic subsidence and a return to normalcy, the school district is modifying its school capacity policy for the 2021-22 school year.

At its Thursday meeting, the IRSD board unanimously approved the modification, which lowers school capacity from the current 95% to 85% for that school year.

“We are asking for a one-year modification to this policy, and the reason being (is) that we know what our school capacity normally is,” said IRSD board member W. Scot Collins, the board’s policy liaison. “This year, with the COVID issue, our enrollment is significantly lower. Especially with kindergarten and first grade, we’ve had a lot of students that have withdrawn to do home school or private schooling.

“What we are afraid of next year is, with COVID hopefully being under control or a lot less of a factor than it is now, that if we take in a large number of school choice students now, when our normal enrollment, our normal students, come back it will put us well beyond our normal capacity,” said Mr. Collins.

Superintendent Dr. Jay Owens agreed.

“We are down this year due to several factors we have discussed in the past,” he said. “So I agree with this. And the 85% is in compliance with what the state would allow us (to) move to for school choice.”

The district’s capacity previously was at 85%, which is the state minimum, until Dec. 16, 2019, when the board approved the change to 95%.

Prior to COVID-19, IRSD experienced a continuous annual increase, nearing the 11,000-student plateau in 2019, at 10,942 students. Based on the annual fall unit count, enrollments for previous years were 10,619 for 2017 and 10,697 for 2018.

Enrollment for 2020 dropped to 10,592.

“So this is one year moving it back to 85%,” Mr. Collins said. “Then, once the school year 2021-22 is over, it will go back (to 95%).”

Based on this year’s enrollment count, current capacity percentages for IRSD schools are:
• Phillip Showell Elementary — 59.3%.
• Lord Baltimore Elementary — 87.4%.
• John M. Clayton Elementary — 74.8%.
• East Millsboro Elementary — 95%.
• Long Neck Elementary — 81.8%.
• Georgetown Elementary — 85.2%.
• North Georgetown Elementary — 90.2%.
• Howard T. Ennis — 36.3%.
• Selbyville Middle — 104.6%.
• Millsboro Middle — 99.6%.
• Georgetown Middle — 82.7%.
• Southern Delaware School of the Arts — 96.2%.
• Indian River High — 96.8%.
• Sussex Central High — 121.4%.

School choice
Indian River School District is utilizing the Data Service Center’s web-based Delaware Public and Charter School Choice Application for 2021-22.

The school choice application period opened Nov. 2 and closed Jan. 13. The district will decide on all applications for grades 1-12 by Feb. 22.

Parents will have until March 19 to accept or decline a school’s invitation. Decisions on kindergarten applications will be made in May.

The Data Service Center’s online system is the school choice application receipt and processing tool for all Delaware public school districts.