Bend-La Pine Schools expect kindergarten numbers to bounce back, possibly increase

(Update: Adding video, details)

'Next school year, we are predicting that our numbers will rebound'

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) -- The number of students going back to elementary school in the fall could be back to normal, if not even higher.

Skip Offenhauser, executive director of elementary school programs at Bend-La Pine Schools, said they are expecting at least a normal number of kindergartners.

"I think as we get close to the next school year, we are predicting that our numbers will rebound, and that we are going to have a lot more students come back to us,” Offenhauser said Wednesday.

For the 2020-2021 school year, Bend-La Pine Schools saw nearly 1,000 fewer students than they were anticipating.

"Completely across the board, kindergarten all the way through 12th grade, our numbers are much lower,” Offenhauser said. 

He said as of right now, their enrollment figures for next year's kindergarten programs are still lower than normal.

"We do a pretty good job of predicting what our numbers are going to look like for the next year, and we're just a little bit behind where we are in other years,” Offenhauser said. 

But he is confident the district will rebound just fine, and may see additional kindergartners.

He says he feels the pandemic could be a factor in the increase. 

"Families who may have had a younger student and may have decided, 'Well, maybe we won't start them this year, we'll just hold off for a year,'" he said.

However at this point, school districts just don't know how it will play out.

Sheila Miller, public Information officer with Redmond School District, said in an email to NewsChannel 21, "It's likely there are still some families taking a wait-and-see approach until the governor or ODE (Oregon Department of Education) has made announcements about what school will look like in the 2021-22 school year."

Offenhauser said Bend-La Pine Schools should have enough staff, no matter what, but early registration is always helpful. 

"Anybody that we can get to enroll now, the better that we can prepare for next year,” he said.

He encourages any parent in the Bend-La Pine district thinking about registering their children to visit the enrollment page on the district's website.