BILLINGS — On the first day of school, Billings School District 2 enrollment was close to same as the beginning of last school year.
That makes it just about right for the number of students in each class at each school, according to Superintendent Greg Upham.
“There's so much excitement on the first day of school,” Upham said. “Everyone's dressed to the nines, and it's really exciting."
The elementary schools, including kindergarten through the fifth grade, have 7,490 students.
The middle schools, sixth to eighth grades, have the biggest increase with 4,064 students
The high schools, ninth through 12th grades, have more than 5,546 students.
The total students enrolled for the first day is 17,100.
This includes about 100 more in middle schools and 100 fewer in the high schools, which lost freshman students to the new Lockwood High School that opened this year.
Upham said the enrollment total has been "flattening out" the last few years at right around 17,000.
"From a community perspective, we want to make sure that our numbers are stable or slightly growing as they impact our budgets and so on and so forth,” Upham said. “And we want to make sure we have appropriate facilities to support those students and we do. we're feeling good about where we are with that.”
Upham said enrollment numbers will change with families moving in and out of Billings throughout the school year.
