Amesbury reviews reasons for decline in student enrollment

Jan. 27—AMESBURY — Changing demographics and outdated athletic facilities could be contributing to declining enrollment at city schools.

Superintendent Elizabeth McAndrews cited those factors when giving the School Committee an update on student enrollment at its meeting Monday.

McAndrews said she pulled together numbers with the help of the New England School Development Council that show the city's schools continue to see an enrollment decrease in kindergarten through Grade 12.

The school district lost 67 students between 2020 (1,827 enrolled) and 2021 (1,760 enrolled), she said.

"You can see that over the past 10 years, our numbers have declined," McAndrews said.

Amesbury Public Schools has seen a steady decrease since 2013 when 2,265 students were enrolled in Grades K-12. The projected enrollment shows the decline is expected to continue for the rest of the decade, dropping to 1,538 students by 2031.

The data also shows that Amesbury has lagged behind neighboring Newburyport and the Pentucket and Triton Regional school districts in enrollment ever since 2011-12.

But McAndrews pointed out that Pentucket and Triton have also been losing students, with both regional school districts having more than 3,000 students in 2010. Each now has about 2,200 students, she said.

Newburyport Public Schools has maintained a student enrollment of roughly 2,500 since 2010, with that number also beginning to dip toward 2,200 this year.

"Pentucket and Triton were leaps and bounds ahead of us in enrollment numbers 10 years ago and are pretty close to where we are at in this general area," McAndrews said. "So everyone has had a significant decrease in population with the exception of (Newburyport.) I wish I could pick their brain as to what it is that they do that we don't. But decreasing district enrollment is not unique to Amesbury."

McAndrews pointed to Newburyport's athletic facilities as an attractive element to its school district.

"The turf field (at the high school) and the baseball field down at the Nock Middle School, those things keep kids in district," McAndrews said. "Our physical resources are a challenge."

The data also showed a significant gap between births and kindergarten enrollment, with the city recording just over 150 births in 2012 and 150 students enrolling in kindergarten in 2017. Roughly 170 babies were born in the city in 2016, with only about 130 showing up at the kindergarten level in 2021.

School Committee member Maryann Welch said she knows a few parents who enrolled their children at a Montessori school as opposed to the local kindergarten.

"The most logical thing is that they have chosen a private kindergarten," McAndrews said.

Meanwhile, Amesbury High School graduates have been accepted at prestigious universities, she said.

Graduates have been accepted at Brown, Cornell and Yale universities over the past five years, with alumni also going to Tufts University, Boston College, Brandeis University, Northeastern University and the University of California San Diego, among other schools.

City schools have seen a significant group of economically disadvantaged students, students with disabilities and those with "high needs."

"This school year, 45.4% of our students are high needs," McAndrews said. "That is anyone who is economically disadvantaged, students with disabilities, English language learners, any one of those categories or a combination thereof."

The city's changing demographics could also have an impact on enrollment statistics, according to many who attended the meeting Monday.

"Everybody is losing between 25% and 30% of their enrollment over the last 10 years, except for Newburyport," School Committee member Mel Webster said. "It's a demographic thing, as I have been trying to tell people who continue to insist that they are leaving Amesbury in droves. No, they are not. They are leaving every place in droves because there aren't as many kids."

Webster added that he recently toured the new 100-unit Village at Bailey's Pond condominium complex, which appears to be attracting more middle-aged and older homeowners.

"It's almost all childless couples moving in there," Webster said. "It's not a first home."

Staff writer Jim Sullivan covers Amesbury and Salisbury for The Daily News. He can be reached via email at jsullivan@newburyportnews.com or by phone at 978-961-3145. Follow him on Twitter @ndnsully.

Staff writer Jim Sullivan covers Amesbury and Salisbury for The Daily News. He can be reached via email at jsullivan@newburyportnews.com or by phone at 978-961-3145. Follow him on Twitter @ndnsully.