Enrollment within range so far at CMS

Enrollment on the 10th day at school at CMS looks to be closer to projections than it has in recent school years. And accurate projection is important for budgetary reasons. WFAE's Simone Orendain has more: Before the start of the year, CMS projected it would have 135,000 students. In the first 10 days of the year, the district had 133,000-plus students. Student Placement Director Scott McCully says about 5,000 of those students enrolled in the first 10 days. "And I would expect that we would continue to pick up more students between the 10th day and 20th day. However that pace is going to slow down considerably. And we should be relatively close to our projection," says McCully. Last year, new enrollment was half of what the district projected. As a result, it had to give back more than $5 million to the state. By the end of the year, the district expects to have 388 more students than it had last year. That's a far cry from recent high growth years, when CMS grew by around 4,000 students yearly. McCully says it's because of a change in the kindergarten enrollment age, and the weak economy has significantly slowed growth in the Charlotte region.