Enrollment in the Nye County School District dropped overall by four students this year, while two schools in Pahrump even showed noticeable declines in enrollment -- Rosemary Clarke Middle School and J.G. Johnson Elementary.

The enrollment taken on the official count day is used to calculate state aid. This year students were counted Sept. 14. Districtwide, 6,532 students were counted this year, down from 6,536 on the official count day of Sept. 22, 2006.

The figures contradict the popular belief about the rapid growth of Pahrump impacting student population. Nye County school district officials were scratching their heads after budgeting for a 3 to 5 percent growth rate every year.

Nye County School Superintendent Rob Roberts had an explanation for some of it however.

Enrollment went up by only one student at Hafen Elementary School, from 586 to 587, which is in the attendance zone at the southernmost end of Pahrump where a lot of the growth is occurring.

"Usually upper income houses have fewer students than median income," Roberts said. "We only have a handful of kids out of Mountain Falls."

Rosemary Clarke Middle School experienced a drop of 57 students, from an enrollment of 1,261 students in September 2006 to 1,204 this September, down 4.5 percent. But Roberts noted Pahrump Valley High enrollment rose by 54, from 1,370 students to 1,424, up 3.9 percent.

"One possible factor could be the housing situation," Rosemary Clarke Middle School Principal Joe Peters said of the drop. But he said, "We make up a lot of those numbers throughout the year, especially after the first semester. We see quite a bit of a rise in enrollment."

Rosemary Clarke gained three more teaching positions that will help reduce student-teacher ratios in addition to the lower enrollment, Peters said. The middle school also started an alternative school program this year to help with the transition to high school, he said.

J.G. Johnson Elementary School enrollment also dropped, from 658 pupils to 590, or 68 fewer students, a decline of 10.3 percent in the population. Principal Holly Lepisto said it's the first time she can recall her school enrollment being below 600.

"I think it's a redistribution of people. They moved into houses in other parts of the district," Lepisto said. "I know they built a lot of new houses in the Manse area and Mount Charleston area."

The drop in enrollment however means better student-teacher ratios, Lepisto said. Last year, she said there were as many as 30 pupils per class in fourth grade, this year there's only 22.

"People did not move into the area. The typical new construction that we have didn't grow as much as we anticipated growing and we have about a 35 percent transient rate in this town, people coming and going from area to area," Roberts said.

An example of the transient population moving around Pahrump is evident in the enrollment figures, the superintendent said. While J.G. Johnson enrollment went down, Roberts said some of those pupils increased the enrollment by 38 children at Mt. Charleston Elementary from 559 to 597, up 6.7 percent, while Manse Elementary enrollment rose from 512 pupils to 530, an increase of 18, a 3.5 percent rise.

The drop in enrollment means the school district will have a lower ending fund balance, Roberts said. But revenue from the net proceeds of mining, with gold at near record prices, will help counteract some of the drop in funding from the state Distributive School Account, he said.

"We continue to update the budget. We're asked to have a 4 percent ending fund balance and that becomes difficult," Roberts said. In reality, he said few school districts actually achieve that percentage.

"I think we'll be OK with the way it seems to be working out right now," Roberts said.

The Pathways program enrollment went up from 134 to 165 this year. The Early Childhood Center had 111 toddlers enrolled this year, eight more than last year.

Elsewhere in the district, Amargosa Valley Elementary School enrollment dropped from 194 pupils to 179, down 7.7 percent. Beatty Elementary School gained three more pupils to 108 this year. Beatty High School however lost seven, with 127 students enrolled this year. Remote Duckwater had 14 students in the one room school house this year, there were only eight last year. Gabbs school enrollment was steady at 58.

Round Mountain Elementary School enrollment rose by 19 this year, from 156 pupils in September 2006 to 175 this year, a 12 percent gain. Round Mountain Junior-Senior High School however counted five fewer students this year, with 193 enrolled.

In Tonopah, Silver Rim Elementary School enrollment dropped from 115 to 107. Tonopah Elementary School enrollment went down by 20 pupils, from 223 to 203, a loss of 8.9 percent. Tonopah High School had 160 students this September, two less than last year.

The ethnic breakdown on students also shows a surprising 31 percent minority enrollment district-wide. Out of 6,532 students, 2,024 are minority. That includes 1,460 Hispanic students or 22.3 percent, Amargosa Valley Elementary School had the highest percentage of Hispanics, almost three-fourths of the enrollment, 133 pupils. Rosemary Clarke Middle School and Pahrump Valley High School were each about one-fifth Hispanic. The figures were a little higher in the four Pahrump elementary schools, where 24 percent of the pupils were classified as Hispanic.

The district counted 229 blacks, of which all but a handful were enrolled in Pahrump schools and 160 Indians, who formed sizeable percentages of the enrollment in Gabbs and Duckwater.

Nye County School Enrollment