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Higher enrollment numbers and a potential increase in tuition were among the topics discussed at a joint meeting of Lexington City Council and the Lexington School Board last week.
Projected enrollment for the 2024-2025 school year is already up, according to Superintendent Rebecca Walters.
“Our numbers at all grade levels are up, and pretty high, honestly. We tend to have a preference of a cap size at all of our grade levels; we want to keep those small class sizes if we can,” she said.
“We try to cap those numbers at about 18 students for grades K-2, preferably lower than that if we can, and about 20 students for grades 3 through 5,” Walters explained.
“When we get to the middle school, we look at about 60 students per grade level as being what is manageable to have in our class sizes and our small electives and things like that.”
Families who do not live within Lexington city limits may apply to enroll their child in city schools. In the past, Walters said, most who applied were accepted.
“At most of our grade levels, we are likely going to be wait listing any new applications at this time,” she said. “There’s just not space to add a lot of new-nonresident students. That’s an interesting problem to have.”
In January, the School Board voted to increase nonresident tuition rates $100 per child, moving from $1,100 to $1,200 a year.
When asked by members of City Council why a larger increase was not implemented, Walters said that the School Board was hoping to take a more progressive approach.
“We did have a conversation about the fact that tuition here has not changed for many, many years; it’s been about the same. We did make the decision to up our tuition by $100 this year,” she said.
“We had a conversation about, do you just add a whole bunch on there, or are we going to add $100 this year, and the next year go up $200, and do it that way, so you’re not completely shocking families with that?” Walters said.
“I think our intention is to continue on that trajectory, to increase that tuition. We’re trying not to shock people too much since it was our first year increasing.”
