“It’s the case of the disappearing students.Bainbridge Island School District enrollment – already 55 students below projections for September, and down 62 in October – is down another 11 in November, according to the district business office.The cumulative enrollment drop – 73 full-time equivalent students below projections for the year – represents nearly 2 percent of the district’s 3,800 students, said Mike Schroeder, director of business operations.Schroeder reported the latest enrollment drop at Thursday’s school board meeting.We are 10 or 11 further off than that which we’ve allowed for in the adjusted budget – we have to hope that there isn’t going to be much more, Schroeder said, But this year, all bets are off. We’re already beyond anything typical or historical or predictable. Each FTE student brings the Bainbridge district approximately $4,000 from the state in basic education allocation dollars, so 11 students fewer is another loss in anticipated revenues of $44,000. The district has already undertaken a number of budget cuts this year, with an shortfall of around $1 million in the $25 million budget reported with the start of the school year. Much of that shortfall was attributed to lower-than-expected enrollment.Bainbridge Island School Board President Bruce Weiland said that although the district wouldn’t have noticed the amount a few years ago, when the district’s reserves were larger, this year the loss is significant. Thursday, district officials could not account for the ongoing decline in enrollment. Assistant Superintendent Brent Peterson said that the district has, for the last five years, surveyed students departing the district to track why they leave. Until now, the responses have been more often tied to a family’s moving out of the district than to any problems with the schools, he said.Peterson concluded that in the light of the new statistics, closer questioning might be appropriate. Being down an FTE does not necessarily equal the loss of one discrete student, Schroeder said.If a student drops a class, that’s two-tenths of an FTE gone. Two students attending BHS half-time equal one FTE.If those two students were to take half their classes at BHS and enroll in Contract Studies for the the rest, that would be a loss to the district of one FTE. Schroeder hypothesized that the growing popularity of alternative educational programs such as Running Start and Contract Studies could account for falling enrollment.The more we expand choices, Schroeder said, the harder it is to count students. Schroeder hopes to reclaim four or five FTE when students from Contract Studies reappear at BHS in January 2001 to make up classes. Weiland and other school board members cited the need to better determine why the numbers are falling. Our revenue is driven almost entirely by the number of students (enrolled), Weiland said, so changes in enrollment are key to budgetary planning. If we find a drop that surprises us, we need to dig into the data and find out why. “