Enrollment in the Nantucket Public Schools (NPS) fell by another eight students this month, bringing the total decline to 69 since its record high last September and dropping enrollment to its lowest level since 2017.
This is the steepest single-year decline in enrollment, both by raw numbers and percentage, that NPS has seen since the beginning of the district’s enrollment explosion in 2010. Current enrollment sits at 1,662 students, down from 1,724 last June and 1,731 last September.
October enrollment data is particularly important, as this is the data that will be sent to the state and largely used for official purposes this year. Last October, there were 1,719 students enrolled at NPS. Some month-to-month variation is expected, but this month’s decline is notable because of the importance of October enrollment data and for breaking the barrier of 1,670 students, which NPS has not dipped below in the official data since 2017.
