Twin Falls schools see decrease in enrollment

TWIN FALLS, Idaho (KMVT/KSVT) - Twin Falls schools have been open for several weeks with both in school classes as well as online.

KMVT reached out to the Twin Falls School District to check on the enrollment numbers this year amid the coronavirus.

The Twin Falls superintendent said this year Twin Falls enrollment is down about 4%, which is equal to about 400 to 500 students. With student enrollment numbers a driving factor with budgeting, KMVT asked how that effected staffing for the year.

“We ended up with the end of last school year having some openings and we purposely did not fill them," said Brady Dickinson, Twin Falls School District superintendent. "Because we anticipated being down in enrollment, and that actually came to be true. We had about 12 positions we didn’t hire, I’m talking teaching positions.”

He said all the teachers that left had planned on leaving before the coronavirus so no jobs were cut.

He went on to say that while they are fully staffed for teaching positions they always struggle to fill non-teaching positions such as teacher aids and secretaries.