In the past 10 years, Jackson Public Schools has seen total enrollment decrease by 41.3% — one of the leading reasons why the JPS school board voted to shutter 11 schools and merge two after the 2023-2024 school year, school officials said.
During a school board meeting Tuesday evening, The JPS Board of Trustees and JPS Superintendent Errick Greene listened to an enrollment update presented by Faith Strong, the school district’s director of data management and enrollment services.
Strong presented total enrollment numbers for the past ten school years, including enrollment in pre-k schools, elementary schools, middle schools and high schools. She also presented the enrollment numbers at the beginning of the year versus the end of the year. The numbers are below:
Since 2013, enrollment has declined in JPS’s elementary schools by 48%, declined in middle schools by 47% and declined in high schools by 24%. Only Pre-K enrollment has seen a 21% increase.
Of the district’s 30 elementary schools, only four elementary schools have seen an increase in enrollment in the past five years: Obama Elementary School, 12%, Bates Elementary School, 25%, Walton Elementary School, 6%, and Shirley Elementary School, 3%