This marks the district’s second consecutive year of enrollment increase. A preliminary count shows the district with an equivalent of 1,468 full-time students, compared to last year’s official count of 1,426.

But Richard Erickson, superintendent, cautioned that this is not official yet. The final count the one that determines the state aid a district will receive will be taken Sept. 20.

“I think it’s going to fluctuate between now and September 20,” Erickson said. “Usually it goes down when kids are deciding on their final school the first week or so. Some move out and some move in.”

Erickson said he would be pleased if the final enrollment number is between 25 or 30 additional students.

Earlier this year, the legislature approved a $20 per-pupil increase for public schools. But last week Kansas Gov. Bill Graves reduced the state’s budget by $41 million, including a $17.51 million gouge to the public education budget. This cut means a $27 per-pupil decrease in state aid. Erickson said Kansas school districts will ultimately receive $7 less per pupil than they did during the 2001-2002 school year. He estimated that the cut will result in $45,000 to $50,000 less in state aid for the district.

With the increase in Tonganoxie’s enrollment, the district may not feel the pinch as bad as it could have. However, the increase means there’s a chance some classrooms could be overcrowded. Erickson noted the third-grade, the class with the largest enrollment jump.

“They’ve increased from about 116 students to 125,” Erickson said.

“We’ll take a look at that in the next couple of days,” Erickson said. “We certainly don’t want to run our class sizes too large.”

But the problem is, he said, if the district would decide to establish an additional third-grade class, there’s no space for it.

“It if came to an emergency situation, we’d probably be looking at modular classrooms bringing in extra units,” Erickson said.

Erickson said the district tries to keep enrollment in grades, K-2 at 20 or less, and grades 3-4 at 23 to 25 students. Upper elementary class is usually limited to 25 or 26 students.