Cape outpacing other districts statewide in enrollment growth

Cape Henlopen School District is outpacing many other districts in Delaware in terms of enrollment growth rate, Assistant Superintendent LouAnn Hudson told the school board at a Nov. 13 meeting.

She said the annual student unit count, which shows a net increase of 77 students in the district overall since last September but no change in the number of students at Cape High specifically, only tells part of the story. 

“When we make comments that we didn’t grow at all [at Cape High] last year, that’s not really accurate,” said Superintendent Jenny Nauman.

It comes down to how the unit count is calculated. 

Units are a student enrollment-based metric used to determine how many staff positions a school can hire. Specific student-to-staff ratios determine the number of units, which in turn authorize the school’s staffing level and associated funding for non-salary costs and equalizations.

Each school has its own unit count. Then, these counts are added up to calculate the district’s total overall unit count.

What makes this misleading, however, is the fact the Sussex Consortium has its own unit count, despite many of its students actively taking classes at other schools in the district.

For example, Cape High’s unit count this year came in at 1,889, the same as last year. However, when including the Sussex Consortium students who are in the high school for classes, the count increases to 1,980. With all of the staff, it jumps to 2,358.

“Our Consortium students grew, our Consortium staff grew, so it is definitely noticed at the high school,” Nauman said.

Some class sizes at the high school reach as high as 35 students. There are seven teachers currently working on a cart, meaning they do not have a classroom of their own.

Five other schools in the district also have additional Consortium students and staff, which affects their total building counts, though not represented in the official unit counts.

In most districts across the state, growth is stagnant, Nauman said. But not for Cape.

Over the past year, the district saw a 1.16% increase in enrollment – an increase of 77 students. 

According to Nauman, the only other comprehensive district in Delaware that came close to Cape in terms of growth is Delmar, which grew by 1.8% – an increase of 26 students.

Other than that, most districts either went down in enrollment or saw very little increases. 

Appoquinimink, which for a long time was the fastest-growing district in the state, grew only by about 0.5% – an increase of 61 students, or 11 units.