Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools enrollment drops by 1,000 students

Fewer students are walking through the doors of Chapell Hill-Carrboro City Schools this year. The district says enrollment has dropped by 1,000 students compared to prepandemic levels.

CHCCS Chief Communications Officer Andy Jenks told WRAL that fewer students have led to budget issues and less per-pupil funding.

“For the past two years, we’ve been telling the story to our community that we’ll have to make some difficult decisions, and that day has come,” he shared.

The district announced 80 positions from various departments were cut just one week into the new school year, though Jenks emphasized no employees lost their jobs.

The cuts included 24 central office roles and 57 instructional support and non-core teaching roles.

“Anyone centrally who was impacted was offered positions that were vacant elsewhere in the school, so rather than hiring someone new from outside, those opportunities were first offered to impacted personnel,” Jenks shared.

To his knowledge, Jenks said all employees accepted the new job roles.

While increased private and home school enrollment doesn't seem to be impacting CHCCS' lower numbers, at least one charter school in Orange County reported an increase of 155 students this year over last.

Jenks said one cause of reduced enrollment is fewer young families moving to the area.

“Families of young kids, kindergarten or first grade, for example, may find it difficult to live comfortably within our school district,” he said.

The district reports its highest drop in enrollment is in younger grades.

“Our enrollment at the upper-grade levels is relatively consistent,” Jenks added. “Once you’ve started in our school system, we’re seeing you matriculate and age all the way through high school graduation.”

When asked how the impacted positions were funded in previous years as enrollment steadily declined, the district pointed to its “rainy day fund.”

“We're fortunate to be part of a community that is highly supportive of public education,” said Jenks. “We can operate the school district; that’s not the issue. The issue is needing to build it back up so we’re prepared for future emergencies.”

Jenks said reallocating employees means responsibilities from roles that no longer exist will be added to other positions within the central office and even onto individual schools themselves.

“We've demonstrated publicly that we want to preserve student-facing positions and the student experience to the greatest extent possible. Because, ultimately, that's who we serve,” added Jenks.

Jenks said the district “exhausted” all other options to keep employees in their original roles.