Boca Raton Community High School’s doors will open for the new school year Aug. 18, and it will be the largest student body since 1983. Principal Geoff McKee said the five-year enrollment projection done in 2004 was a bit low, but they are fully capable of meeting the demand.
“We will have just about 2,700 students for the upcoming school year, and it really is a testament to our faculty and staff. With everything going on in the economy, we anticipated an increase in enrollment this year as potentially less families sought private schooling options,” he said.
St. Andrew’s School administrators we expecting a dip in enrollment and made conservative budget estimates, but it turned out to not be the case.
“We were estimating a drop in enrollment in the 5 percent range, but we have actually increased our numbers by a handful of students. We differ from other private schools in that we are a nonprofit, and while we have certainly taken a bit of hit like all nonprofits, we are in good shape,” said assistant head master of enrollment and planning Kilian Forgus.
Olympic Heights High School had a changing of the guard recently, and new principal Frank Rodriguez said enrollment has increased, but is on pace with typical year-to-year spikes.
“We will be up close to 100 students, which is what is typically planned for. Our academies are really thriving, enrollment in AP courses is on the rise, and it is going to be a very exciting year,” he said.
Rodriguez comes to Olympic Heights after serving as principal of West Gate Elementary School and assistant principal at Forest Hill High School.
Palm Beach County School District demographer Art Wittman said enrollment rates have been a bit tricky to predict lately due the changes in the housing market and economy.
“We had been seeing district-wide enrollment rising by close to 5,000 students a year prior to 2004. Since then, the numbers have diminished significantly, and this year we are projecting a decline between elementary, middle and high schools collectively around 574 students,” he said.