School Expects Higher Numbers in Sept.

By BARRY SMITH

HULL – Hull High School’s enrollment dipped below 400 during the past school year, but Principal Jonathan Ford expects enrollment to be roughly 425 when the school reopens in September.

Fluctuations in school population figures and a dropout rate that appears to be just under 2 percent look normal to Ford.

There were 417 students enrolled at the four-year high school Oct. 1, school records show. The figure was down to 393 as of June 1.

There was a net loss of 24 students – 37 students leaving and 13 coming in – during the 2006-07 school year, Ford said.

Ford said eight students dropped out and one student who had withdrawn returned to school.

Only if a student stops attending school and there is no request to send his or her records to another school is the student considered to have dropped out, Ford said.

Therefore, the seven students who enrolled in the Wellspring Multi-Service Center’s high school diploma program were not classified as dropouts.

Ford said Wellspring’s program, which offers a smaller setting, different hours and lower pupil-teacher ratio, may suit some students better.

Some students who drop out go to work, join the Job Corps or enlist in the military, he said.

Ford said he advises students to complete high school "so you have the options in the future. … It really is the key to a better life."

The coming school year will be Ford’s third as principal. The 39- year-old administrator said no student has been expelled during his tenure.

These were the high school enrollment figures, by grade, as of Oct. 1: grade 9 – 118; grade 10 – 111; grade 11 – 112; grade 12 – 76.

The June 1 numbers were: grade 9 – 107; grade 10 – 104; grade 11 – 109; grade 12 – 73.

Gregory Cunningham Jr., an English teacher at the high school for 15 years and vice president of the Hull Teachers Association, said the enrollment changes seem "pretty typical."

As for the Wellspring program, he said, "I think that there are students that benefit from an alternative program and I’m very glad that Hull has one."

Ford said the upcoming student increase is attributable to an "enrollment bubble" involving last year’s ninth, 10th and 11th grades.

"We’ll have over a hundred kids walking" at graduation next June, Ford said of the senior class size.

He said the school can comfortably accommodate a student population of 420 to 430.

Cunningham said: "The building can certainly hold that many and we certainly have the faculty to service that number of students. I know Jonathan Ford has really worked to try to keep class sizes to a moderate level of about 20 or so."

Barry Smith may be reached at bsmith@ledger.com.

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