As we recently reported, student enrollment in the West Central Valley school district is down again this year.

Superintendent Dr. David Arnold says this time last year they were down 30 students from the year before and this fall they’re down another 18.

“The major cause of that is the larger senior class graduating last May and a smaller group of kids coming in this fall into kindergarten.”

While a dozen and a half kids may not sound like a lot. Dr. Arnold says their budget will be impacted “a great deal.”

“Somewhere in the area of $117,000 less in state aid that we would be getting, had we not had that decline.  So that does impact what we can do when it’s budget time.  We will look again this coming spring when we start developing the budget for next year.  What areas can we reduce?  How can we adjust staff?  That type of thing.”

Dr. Arnold says it’s unfortunate but the District has to do what they can to make the system work for them.