The Brandywine and Buchanan school districts both experienced a slight decline in student enrollment from the fall to the spring.

Brandywine’s spring 2012 count is 1,388, down 14 students from its fall 2011 count of 1,402.

Buchanan saw a decrease of 16 students from the fall 2011 count (1,558) to the spring 2012 count (1,542).

Brandywine Supt. John Jarpe said it isn’t unusual to see this type of change.

“Unfortunately it does happen and we tend to lose kids from fall to winter,” he said. “I think more of them move. We had probably 64 students move since then, but we had a bunch move in too.”
Brandywine’s spring student count last year was 1,399, which is 11 students more than counted this spring.

Buchanan’s biggest dip in enrollment came from the high school. Buchanan’s high school student count was 574 this spring, down 23 students from the fall of 2011 (597).

“Last year the drop was around this time of the year and most came from the high school,” Supt. Andrea van der Laan said. “My first year here we lost about 50 students over the course of the year, but this year we’ve lost 16, so I think that is slowing down a little bit.”

Student counts are taken twice a year — once in the fall and once in the spring.