Enrollment Plummets Across Nation, DHS Stays Strong

PHOTO: Students in fall 2022 continue to register en masse for the 2022-2023 school year. Registration jumped up by 38 students that year.

By Cody Walsh

BlueDevilHUB.com Staff––

Enrollment in high schools across the nation has been steadily falling after COVID-19. However, Davis High has been immune to this phenomenon. 

Data provided by the district shows that DHS has just three less students enrolled in fall of 2022 than it did pre-pandemic. In the heart of the pandemic, DHS lost 40 students, but in the next year, 2021-2022, quickly regained 38 students. 

Dr. Bryce Geigle, the principal of DHS, supported that data saying, “We have not seen any fluctuation in enrollment.” And although DHS has not experienced a significant rise in enrollment, Dr. Geigle did express that throughout the year DHS does receive many inquires from families and students interested in enrolling. 

Despite DHS’s steady enrollment numbers, based on data from the California Department of Education, enrollment has been steadily declining in grades K-12 for the past five years. This decline is consistent across the nation.

Enrollment dropped from 6,002,534 in 2020-2021 in California to 5,892,240 in 2021-2022. That is a decrease of 110,000 students.

COVID-19 effectively reversed the steady enrollment gain that California had been in experiencing in the last decade. The CDE has sponsored two bills in hopes to get enrollment on the rise again. Both bills would provide school districts with funds to increase outreach to families who have been affected by the pandemic. 

Students in DJUSD have the choice to attend DHS, Da Vinci Charter Academy, or Davis School for Independent Study.

As well as that, students could be choosing to leave the district for reasons other than COVID-19. Johan Olmedo, a student who used to be enrolled in DJUSD at Emerson Jr. High, decided against going to DHS and instead went to Woodland High School.

He was originally enrolled in WJUSD from first to seventh grade. He decided to move to DJUSD because he and his parents believed it would be a higher quality education. However, in the their opinions, the quality of the education was not higher than WJUSD. Because of that, they decided to move Johan back to WJUSD. 

“School in Davis was basically the same as school as school in Woodland so it didn’t make sense to commute all the way to Davis every day,” said Johan. 

Although Johan did leave DJUSD and he does not attend DHS, his decision had very little to do with COVID-19. 

Joshua Morris is another student who decided against going to DHS, but not because of COVID-19. He was set to go to DHS, but ended up deciding to attend Da Vinci Charter Academy instead. 

He said he chose Da Vinci because he thought their its was more in line with his wants and he had lots of friends going to Da Vinci. “I really just thought I would have more fun if I went to Da Vinci,” said Josh. 

Alejandro Sanchez also opted out of going to DHS. But just as the data shows, it was not because of COVID. He currently attends Davis School for Independent Study. He chose it because it allows him to have more free time.

“I also really like that the classrooms are much smaller,” Sanchez said,”It makes it way easier to focus and learn.”