Final enrollment figures for Laramie County School District#1 show an overall increase of only 39 students, according to John Lyttle, Assistant  Superintendent For Human Resources.

But Lyttle says the big increase was in the elementary grades, where 159 more students are enrolled this year compared to last. That contrasts with an overall decline of 3 students at the Junior High level and 117 fewer in local high schools.

Lyttle says the district has had to take a number of steps to deal with the higher enrollment in the lower grades, including the addition of 18 teachers and 9 modular classrooms. He goes on to say that while those additions have meant there is room for the increasing number of students, it has not been enough to allow the district to meet a state mandated 16 to 1 student-teacher ratio in  grades k-3.

Lyttle also says it's not clear yet whether the opening of Prairie Wind Elementary School in 2015 will allow the district to meet that ratio. He says that if the new school were to open right now it would allow the district to meet the mandated ratio, but he says increasing enrollment could change that equation by 2015.

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