Burrell School District enrollment continues to shrink

Burrell School District’s enrollment decreased by 50 students this fall, a decline on par with what the district has seen for the past 10 years, according to Superintendent Shannon Wagner.

Total district enrollment this fall stands at 1,624, Wagner told the school board this week. Enrollment was 1,674 last year.

“We’ve continued to drop about 50 students a summer,” she said.

It’s the second year in a row that the kindergarten class has less than 100 students, with 97 kindergarteners enrolled this year. There are 98 first-grade students this year.

Burrell’s largest class is in the ninth grade. There are 156 freshmen, Wagner said.

There’s been a 22% decrease in enrollment at Burrell over the past 21 years, according to the district.

Total enrollment in the 2003-04 school year stood at 2,197.

Last year, Burrell officials closed Stewart Elementary School, in part because of the declining population. It reshuffled kindergarten through fourth grade students to Bon Air Elementary and fifth through eighth graders to Charles A. Huston Middle School. Burrell High School continues to house ninth through 12th grades.

This year, 39 students are enrolled in a cyber-charter school, 25 are in a special education placement and 13 have educational placements elsewhere, Wagner said.

The district also reported five students in the Alle-Kiski Academy of Excellence — a virtual learning program for children in kindergarten through sixth grade that keeps them enrolled in the district — and 29 students in Burrell’s eAcademy.

Fourteen students this year are homeschooled, Wagner said.

“I am concerned,” Wagner said of the decrease. “I think it marks the decline of people in the state of Pennsylvania.”

Westmoreland County’s population has been declining, with a decrease of about 10,506 residents between 2010 and 2020, resulting in a population of about 355,000, according to the U.S. Census. A report from the nonprofit Center for Rural Pennsylvania predicts that Westmoreland County will drop to 299,500 in 2050.

It’s also part of a national trend played out, in part, by a decline in birth rates and an increase in school choice options. From fall 2019 to fall 2023, there was a 2.5% drop in K-12 enrollment nationally, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. The center projects enrollment will go from 51 million in 2019 to 47 million by 2031.

Wagner noted there aren’t many houses on the market in the district — a Zillow.com search turns up 27 available properties in Lower Burrell and three in Upper Burrell — and once they’re on the market, they sell fast.

Wagner believes that’s a direct result of the school district. She pointed to the district being recognized by The School Superintendents Association for its initiatives in career readiness programming.

“We try to be a good school district, a nationally recognized school district,” she said.