NORTH POWDER — The Imbler, North Powder and Union school districts are all reporting doubledigit enrollment increases.

The North Powder School District is enjoying the biggest percentage increase of the three, with a jump of about 6%. The school district now has 282 students, 18 more than it had at the conclusion of the 2021-22 school year.

“Our enrollment is up a little more than I expected,” said North Powder School District Superintendent Lance Dixon, adding he had projected the school district would have about 275 students.

Dixon credits the increase to new families moving into the school district, the return of students who left during the COVID-19 pandemic and to family ties.

He explained that some of North Powder’s new students are from families who live outside the school district. Many of these students, Dixon said, have brothers and sisters who already attend the North Powder School District and wanted to join them.

Students whose families live outside the North Powder School are allowed to transfer into the district since it is a charter district. Charter school districts are required to accept out-of-district student transfers if they have space available.

In many cases the North Powder School cannot accept new transfer students because their grade level is filled to capacity.

“We have students on waiting lists,” Dixon said.

Students whose families live in the school district always get to enroll regardless of how many students are in their grade level. Transfers who get top priority are those already enrolled, and next on the list are students whose siblings are already enrolled in the district.

Dixon doesn’t expect fluctuation in North Powder’s enrollment in the near future.

“We should be pretty steady the next two years,” he said.

Imbler is also a charter district and its enrollment is up about 15 students from the end of the 2021-2022 school year. The Imbler School District now has 303 students, said Superintendent Randy Waite. Imbler’s total includes 97 students in grades nine to 12, 152 in kindergarten through sixth grade and 54 in grades seven and eight.

Waite said the extent of the increase is a bit of a surprise.

“It is up more than I expected,” he said.

Waite credits part of the increase to some students returning to the school district after leaving during the COVID-19 pandemic to be homeschooled or to receive online instruction from outside the district.

“Some kids wanted to come back,” he said.

The superintendent also credits the increase to some more families moving into the Imbler School District.

The Union School District’s enrollment is up as many as 20 students since the end of the 2021-22 school year, according to Carter Wells, the district’s superintendent. Union has 207 students in kindergarten through sixth grade and 183 in grades seven to 12.

Wells said the enrollment increase combined with recently completed construction projects on campus, many funded with money from a bond school district voters approved in 2019, is adding to an upbeat atmosphere on campus.

“There is a lot of positivity,” he said.

This is the third in a three-part series looking at school enrollment in Union County.