Recently, BVN’s annual enrollment count occurred. During this, representatives from the district pick a day to come to the school and count all of the students that are in attendance on the day. The total count was 1,457 students, a drop of almost 100 students from 2022. This drop is noticeable because rarely is there a decrease in enrollment of this magnitude. However, assistant principal Cory Cox does not feel there is any reason to be worried. 

“We’ve seen a drop in attendance around the district. It ebbs and flows; right now our elementary numbers are up, so we’ll see that increase in enrollment,” Cox said.

One possible reason for the drop that Cox offered was the school’s location. He said that many of the people in the community are older and already have had children go through the school system and that eventually, the cycle will reset itself.

“One term that gets thrown around is the ‘regraining’ of an area. Once students go through the system and the older families move out, newer families move in who have younger children,” Cox said. 

A concern that comes with falling enrollment numbers is that fewer resources will be allocated to the school. Even though North is not losing resources at this point, the number of teachers a school is allocated is based on the number of students in the school. 

“We’re not in a position right now where we’re seeing teachers that we have to lose because we don’t have the numbers to support it, but smaller schools have fewer teachers,” Cox said.

Another possible reason for the drop is that more students are going to different schools in the area, specifically private schools. However, Cox does not believe that students attending different schools are a significant factor in the equation. In his eyes, the COVID pandemic is a factor that sometimes goes unnoticed.

“Honestly, I think that it’s a lot of the pandemic and we don’t have as many students attending the Blue Valley School District that we are hoping to have attended,” Cox said.

While it may be worrisome that the school is still experiencing effects over three years after the pandemic, the drop in attendance has not affected BVN’s day-to-day yet, and the increased amount of students in the elementary school bodes well for attendance increasing in the coming years.

“With those new regraining areas of neighborhoods, I think we’ll see an increase in student enrollment,” Cox said.