Enrollment Down in Ledyard School District

District enrollment is down 300 students from 2006 levels, according to a presentation by schools Superintendent Dr. Michael Graner at the Board of Education’s regular meeting Wednesday. The combined Juliet Long/Gales Ferry School campus has lost some 147 students and the high school has lost another 153. Board members discussed possible reasons for the attrition, and sought to “get the big picture.”

“For the five years prior [to 2006], enrollment was fairly steady around 3,000, plus or minus about 50 each year,” Graner said.

Board Chair Sharon Hightower noted that during the last four or five years, the area has not seen job growth. Other board members wondered about military reassignments.

Board member Julia Cronin wondered if local magnet or private schools might be drawing students. “Are more parents making different choices for their children?” she asked. Business Manager Bill Merrill said that 20 students were now enrolled at the Science and Technology Magnet School in New London. The board resolved to look further into the matter.

New Bleachers

With the approval of the town budget Tuesday, Ledyard High School moved a step closer to replacing its old rusting bleachers with new aluminum ones. “We’re hoping to do this work prior to the football season,” said Graner. “We may have to swap some home games for away games” to complete installation, “but everyone’s going to feel safer with the aluminum bleachers.”

He noted that the bleachers are made to order, and take about two months to manufacture. “If we get this order in almost immediately, then by August we should have them,” he said.

Field Trip to France

Mme. Renée Sylvestre, the high school French teacher, presented the board with the proposed itinerary for the French trip in July 2012. During the course of the trip, students will visit Paris, Versailles, Avignon, Nice, and Monaco, she said. Four adults will accompany and chaperone the group.

Sylvestre said that the French program at the middle school has resulted in a 25 percent increase in enrollment in French courses at the high school, and noted that six middle school students would join 12 high school students on the trip this year.

Forty-eight incoming high school students have indicated that French is their first foreign language choice, she said, and 28 students have signed up for Level III French next year, a huge increase over last year.

“I am amazed at the quality of [French] instruction that goes on,” in Mme. Sylvestre's classes, Graner said. “A trip like this is a huge attraction for students.”

Sylvestre noted that fundraising for the trip, which costs $3,600 per student, has already begun. Students will be selling baked goods at the Ledyard Garden Club’s plant sale at the Congregational Church this Saturday.