Westport Enrollment Projected to Decrease

By Jarret Liotta

Regardless of a new apartment units eventually coming online in Westport, a consultant told the Board of Education tonight that enrollment numbers will continue to drop for at least the next five years.

Karen LeDuc and Donald Kennedy of New England School Development Council share students enrollment projects. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Jarret Liotta for WestportNow.com

Donald Kennedy of the New England School Development Council projects Westport student enrollment will decrease by 483 students through the 2023-24 school year, having been steadily dropping since 2012-13, when it topped at 5,753.

It currently stands at 5,438.

“We are projecting about a 100 annual decline of the K-12 students … or over five years a 483 decline in the total of the district,” Kennedy said.

Board of Finance member Sheri Gordon directly asked Kennedy whether it was likely that new developments on the Post Road could have a significant impact on enrollment.

“The formulas would not show that you’d get a lot of children,” Kennedy said, particularly as many units under discussion are one-and two-bedroom units with a single bathroom.

“In the real world you can’t always know,” Kennedy said, explaining that while his organization is accurate to within 1 percent in its projections, there are always potential variables, so that nothing is written in stone.

“At least at this time, up to now anyway, we haven’t seen anything about construction that is more powerful than the variables that are causing the numbers to drop,” he said.

He said they would amount to “a drop in the bucket” in terms of new students added to Westport.

Overall enrollment is estimated to drop from 5,438 currently to 5,339 next year. It is then estimated to be 5,248 in 2020-21, 5,157 in 2021-22, 5,046 in 2022-23, and 4,955 in 2023-24, for a total drop of 483 students.

Kennedy said the trend is common throughout the northeast, and especially in Connecticut, where fewer young adults are choosing to settle down, instead heading south or west.

Part of this is due to economic conditions, he said.

He said older adults are also choosing to stay in town, making less housing available for new families, with the median age in the region going up.