Rewind to October 2023, enrollment was down 3.84% from the prior year. 2024… enrollment fell another 3.44%. 2025 declined as well, but slowed to 0.93%. 2026 the decline accelerated to 5.66% this fall.
Surprising, but not surprising. Corvallis School District enrollment fell to 5,429 students this fall, a 5.66% decrease from last year and a much sharper decline than district officials anticipated when preparing the current budget.
Which could be a problem.
(Photo: Superintendent of the Corvallis School District Dr. Ryan Noss via www.csd509j.net)
The October 1st count shows 326 fewer students than the district enrolled last October. Enrollment also came in 143 students, or approximately 2.6%, below the 5,572 students projected in the district’s adopted 2026-27 budget.
These figures appeared in an enrollment report prepared by Finance Director Lauren Wolfe for the October 22nd school board meeting. It should be noted that the figures are unaudited… officially, but are probably pretty close, if not spot on.
And yes, they do exclude charter school enrollment.
The report shows that annual enrollment declined in each of the past four years, which we all knew was coming. It’s not just a localized Corvallis problem.
But in terms of Corvallis, rewind to October 2023, enrollment stood at 6,016, down 3.84% from the prior year. 2024… enrollment fell another 3.44%. 2025 declined, but slowed to 0.93%. 2026 not so good, the decline accelerated to 5.66% this fall.
Overall, the district now serves 587 fewer students than it did in October 2023, a decrease of 9.8%.
If you want to get into outliers, kindergarten enrollment dropped 14.6%. The incoming class is also substantially smaller than last year’s 557-student senior class. It’s a continuing pattern in which smaller classes enter the district as larger classes graduate.
The enrollment decline has financial implications. No duh. Student counts help determine state school funding. This new report does not quantify the financial effect of enrollment falling below the budget forecast.
The figures follow the closures of Letitia Carson Elementary and Cheldelin Middle School as part of the district’s consolidation plan to address declining enrollment.
You’re supposed to say “budget pressures” there as well… in terms of school closings, but declining enrollment seems to be the main cause of those pressures.
The report does not identify the reasons for this year’s decline or establish whether consolidation affected families’ enrollment decisions. It probably did to some degree.
The October count remains preliminary and has not yet been validated for submission to the Oregon Department of Education.
I lived in Bend for 4 years. We are all in this journey together. Corvallis is my home, but that news also hit home today. Support your schools. Love wins.
This article was written by Brian Lindensmith, a contributor to The Corvallis Inquirer. Feel free to send us your stories or articles to publish at: editor@corvallisnow.com
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