SPPS Sees Enrollment Increase for First Time in Decade

St. Paul Public Schools is reporting encouraging trends. This academic year, student enrollment has increased by approximately 400 students compared to last year. This is the district’s first enrollment increase in about a decade.

Riverview Spanish/English Immersion School added an additional kindergarten class this year with about 25 children.

“Very interesting,” said director Stivaliss Licona-Gervich.

West Side Elementary School offers instruction in both Spanish and English. It also offers extended day instruction, allowing students to learn string instruments in the morning through a partnership with the Twin Cities Youth Symphonies.

“I want Riverview to be a place where all our families and all families who are interested in bilingualism can go,” Licona-Gerwich said.

She explained that the increase in enrollment is the result of two years of hard work, which included updating the school’s name to include the dual immersion designation to advertise to families the bilingual education it offers. Licona-Gerwich also attended community events and visited daycare centers to recruit families.

“To educate our families about bilingualism and how it affects your brain,” she said. “It doesn’t just open the door for you to get a job or whatever, it actually helps you think differently, and when you speak two or more languages, you can explore and experience the world in a completely different way.”

Riverview is one of six schools the district aimed to increase enrollment last year using federal pandemic-era funding. The district has taken a different approach with its student enrollment project, particularly in the marketing schools, said Communications Director Erica Wacker.

“Education is a very crowded market,” she said. “Typically what we see is that a family doesn’t choose St. Paul Public Schools, you choose a school and maybe look at two public schools, maybe a charter school.”

All but one of the schools covered by the initiative saw an increase in student enrollment. At Riverview, for example, enrollment increased by 16%. The Upper Txuj Ci Hmong Language and Culture Campus saw enrollment increase by 48%, Highwood Hills by 16%, Cherokee Heights by 9%, and Dayton’s Bluff by 7%. However, district data shows that Hamline Elementary School saw a 7% drop in enrollment.

“Those schools that have been given the targeted budget, resources and attention to really growing enrollment and really telling their story are some of the schools that have experienced growth this year,” Wacker said. “The programs that are seeing the most growth are actually language and culture programs.”

In addition to the Enrollment Project schools, the East African Magnet School saw a 58% increase in student enrollment in its second year.

All data is preliminary until submitted to the Department of Education at the end of the year.

Licona-Gervich hopes to continue to build momentum.

“The Westside is a big part of who I am, it’s a big Latino community, I’m Latina,” she said. “For me, the opportunity to be a part of leading this school for our students and our community is an incredible gift.”