Bloomington-Normal public schools enrollment is seeing a decline this school year.
Unit 5 is down more than 200 students and District 87 is down 100 students compared to the 2017-18 school year
Unit 5 has 13,055 students enrolled this fall. That’s down from 13,281 last year and 13,478 the year before.
District 87 has about 5,150 students enrolled this fall. Dr. Barry Reilly, District 87 Superintendent says that’s down from the 5,400 they had a couple of years ago.
Despite the flow of the numbers, both Unit 5 and District 87 are fine with their enrollment. They both say the numbers usually fluctuate and these declines are just an example of what is going on nationwide with grade-school students.
Superintendent Reilly says the decline is a blessing in disguise because it allows the teachers to cater to each student more effectively.
“They come in with a variety of needs,” said Reilly. “We have to take that and help them grow. When you have smaller class sizes it lends itself to better able to do that.”
