The Hartley Sentinel-The Everly/Royal News - Serving O'Brien & Clay Counties

Clay Central/Everly Superintendent Kevin Wood on Monday said school board members should start considering the current state of enrollment numbers.

As of Aug. 28, 50 students were in grades K-6 at CC/E. Wood noted that the kindergarten, second and third grade classes had five students apiece.

"We kind of set a number at a work session awhile back, and we thought that magic number at the time was six," Wood said. "One thing we probably want to continue to talk about is what that is going to look like moving forward."

School districts must submit official enrollment numbers to the Iowa Department of Education on Oct. 1.

"We could gain some more students, and we could also lose a few depending on the population," Wood said. "We just need to be aware of this and continue having those conversations and looking at those numbers."

In addition to the 15 students spread across kindergarten, second and third grades, Wood noted totals in other classes: 10 in first grade, nine in fourth, and eight in both fifth and sixth grades.

"It's not necessarily what we want to hear, but we certainly have to pay attention to that," he said. "It's a number we'll keep our eye on."

Wood reported that 13 children are enrolled in the 3- and 4-year-old preschool, but those students aren't counted in the district's overall enrollment tally.

Clay Central/Everly has only offered grades K-6 since 2019, when the school board voted to cease offering grades 7-12 due to dwindling enrollment. The district now has a whole-grade sharing agreement with the Spencer Community School District for those grades. Many students also choose to open-enroll to Sioux Central, Okoboji, Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn and elsewhere.