As Emporia begins to settle down from K-12 enrollment, the rest of the county is just getting geared up.
The Southern Lyon County school district started enrolling students this afternoon, from 12:30 to 8 p.m., in Hartford, Neosho Rapids and Olpe. Enrollment will continue Friday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
North Lyon County schools will enroll their students Monday through Wednesday. Northern Heights High School students will enroll all three days as follows:
• Seniors — 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Monday.
• Juniors — 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Monday.
• Sophomores — 8 a.m. to noon Tuesday.
• Freshmen — 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday.
• New and transfer students — 8 a.m. to noon and 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday.
Elementary students in North Lyon County will enroll from 1 p.m. to 8 p.m. Monday and from 8 a.m. to noon Tuesday.
Emporia school district spokeswoman Nancy Horst said Emporia’s enrollment was more streamlined this year. Not only did it have less paperwork, but parents had to go to only one location — the Emporia High School gym — rather than one spot for high-schoolers and one for everyone else.
“I can’t begin to estimate how many people were there,” she said. “People would come in with all their kids. By the end of the day, the building was pretty crowded.”
Perhaps the most significant change, she said, was in mailing enrollment information. Each household got one envelope for all their children, rather than one envelope per child.
“It sounds like a no-brainer, but it took a lot of planning to get all the schools together so that a high-school student’s info could go into the envelope for Logan Avenue where a younger sibling goes,” Horst said. “We didn’t have nearly as many envelopes returned this year and we think we saved a lot on postage.”
No estimates have been made yet of Emporia’s enrollment. The official head count will come Sept. 20, though schools will make unofficial ones before then.
“You never know for sure on your staffing until all your students show up,” Horst said.