Roll call: More students on day one

While 128 more students showed up for the first day of school this year than on the first day last year, Superintendent Richard Stokes said it’s still hard to predict where the numbers will be when the official tally is taken next month.

“Our numbers will change fairly dramatically,” he said.

According to attendance calculations, 7,523 students were enrolled on the first day of school Monday, Stokes said. That’s up from last year’s 7,405 on the first day.

However, it’s two students fewer than the 7,525 who were present on last year’s official Count Day, which typically falls on the fourth Friday after the start of the school year.

In Nevada, funding is allotted from the state according to the number of students who show up for class on that day.

Stokes said it’s difficult to predict in the first week of school how the enrollment will look.

“There’s some volatility as we’re figuring out who’s here and who’s not here,” he said.

After the first 10 days, he said, staff is required to drop any students who don’t show up. Conversely, he said, many students, especially transfers from other states, don’t come to school until after Labor Day.

“We try not to get too excited one way or the other until the numbers settle down,” he said. “Right now it would indicate we have a few more students in our schools. That’s always a good thing.”

Stokes said the district is moving forward with the bond projects this year, expecting to complete the controlled entry at Pioneer High School by the first of 2015, the final school to be equipped with a single-point entrance.

By late fall, he said mobile devices will be distributed to students in third through fifth grades, continuing the one-to-one technology program kicked off last year at the middle schools.

“From all early indications, it looks like it’s going to be a great new year,” Stokes said. “We’re off and running with lots of enthusiastic staff and students.”