Both the Montesano and Elma school districts are reporting a drop in enrollment at the deadline for the state-required first count.

Each East County school district is experiencing a 50 student shortfall from its respective estimated numbers as the first enrollment counts were submitted to the state education office by Friday.

Enrollment determines how much schools get from the state budget. On average, it’s about $16,000 per student.

Montesano School District Superintendent Dan Winter stated on Thursday that the total enrollment numbers for all Monte schools is 1,298, which was 50 students below the expected budgeted mark of 1,346 and 75 fewer from the first count numbers from last year.

According to its 2019-20 report card from the Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, Monte SD had 1,469 enrolled students with a per-pupil expenditure of $13,295.

Enrollment numbers for the Elma School District show a similar pattern. Elma Superintendent Kevin Acuff reported on Thursday that 1,419 students were enrolled in schools across the Elma district, 50 below the budgeted number of 1,469. According to the Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, the Elma School District had 1,612 enrolled students with a $15,113 per-pupil expenditure in 2019-20.

The enrollment counts, plus or minus a few students based on any changes Friday, were forwarded to the state education office by the end of the week and will be used to make future budget adjustments. The impact of the lower enrollment numbers are likely to be felt in February when funding adjustments come to fruition.

With public schools being forced to go to a remote-learning model, many parents have decided to home school their children or seek other alternatives, putting district administrators in the position of trying to meet budgetary enrollment marks while being unable to offer many of the benefits of in-person instruction.

“I think the situation last spring, where we were restricted on what we could do in terms of instruction, there are a lot of parents that don’t want to go through that again, nor do we,” Winter said. “While this fall was the complete opposite of what that was last year regular … I think there is some weariness and we need to show those parents that (this year) is a different thing. There is a possibility they come back or they may not. We’ll just have to see.”

Last spring school districts had to scramble to put plans in place to educate students in the early stages of the COVID-19 outbreak. Schools were able to use that experience to better prepare a curriculum and schedule for the fall semester.

“This is uncharted territory,” said Acuff, whose district has been sending out emails and robo calls to get as many students enrolled as possible . “Outreach has been one of the main activities. Classroom teachers to counselors have been reaching out to families.”

“We’ve created an online version of school, which in some ways is similar to online schools out there and some ways it’s not,” Winter said. “This is the first year and I don’t think parents fully understand what it is and what it can do for their students. So it’s going to take some time.”