Down economy boosts DES kindergarten enrollment (PHOTOS)

Sarah Irwin’s teaching career at Destin Elementary School was off to a whirlwind start last week — the school’s kindergarten enrollment jumped enough to add a whole new class two weeks after the school year began.

“I spent my weekend getting this room ready,” the newly graduated 22-year-old said, looking around the room.

“It was tough, because I was a brand new teacher. I didn’t have anything.”

With the help of other DES teachers, Irwin went on a scavenger hunt around DES to find chairs and tables for her students, the last 17 to enroll for the 2009-2010 school year. Irwin’s class rounds out a total of eight classes made up of 149 kindergarten students at DES so far this year. Last year, the school had seven kindergarten classes.

Irwin, fresh out of University of West Florida with degrees in elementary education and exceptional student education, was working as a teacher’s assistant with the exceptional students at Kenwood Elementary School in Fort Walton Beach just the week before when she got the call from DES principal Marti Gardner.
DES needed a new teacher — and fast.

“I was looking for jobs all over, and kindergarten seemed to be where it’s at,” Irwin said.

A couple of theories exist on why DES’s kindergarten enrollment is back up this year to the eight classes it averages — particularly at a time when enrollment is falling across Okaloosa County.

“I think a lot of it is because so many come from private schools,” said Angela Winkler, DES’s data entry secretary. “They have to pay them, and here they don’t.”

Winkler registers the incoming students and said a lot of them are coming in locally from private schools, where the economy is making it tougher for parents to pay.

Private school for a kindergartner in Destin costs $3,875 a year at Destin Christian Academy (based on the 2008-2009 school year). This includes monthly tuition of $350, books and yearly registration fee.

Rocky Bayou Christian School in Niceville currently charges $4,325 a year for kindergarten.

The down economy also seems to be making it an opportune time for parents to relocate to Destin with home prices so low.

“We’ve had a lot of parents say they’ve always wanted to live in Destin and now they can afford it,” Winkler said.
Irwin’s class had several out-of-state students.

Five-year-old Christian Berry from Wisconsin told The Log “my grandma and grampa live here,” and 6-year-old Noah Ford said his family moved to Destin “because all my cousins live here.”

The students appeared to be on track in their makeshift classroom as they glued beans to brown construction paper, forming the number two.

“My mommy wanted to move down here, because it’s nicer,” said 5-year-old Kendall Bertman from Indiana.