When students returned to Iola schools this fall, the familiar rhythm of footsteps and chatter filled the halls, though not quite at the volume expected.
Empty desks peeked from behind rows of chairs, and lockers held fewer backpacks than the year before. The subtle shift in student numbers reflects a broader story unfolding in rural Kansas: Communities feeling the slow ebb of students moving through, and sometimes out of, their schools.
USD 257 Superintendent Stacey Fager told the Register the district is down on student numbers this year from last year. He cited several factors.
“We graduated a pretty big senior class last spring and a smaller kindergarten class has come in,” he said. “We also had an influx of students moving out of the district. That’s steadily been happening, but we just had a little more moving out than moving in this time.”
Iola’s official count confirms the decline. This year the district enrolled 1,122 students, compared to 1,185 at the same point last year — a loss of 63 students, or about 5.3%.
Fager acknowledged the drop is somewhat larger than recent years, but added there is no indication this is the start of a dramatic, long-term slide.
“We don’t see the reduction as a trend,” he said. He characterized this year’s decline as largely driven by demographic “cohort effects” — larger classes aging out, smaller cohorts entering — rather than a systemic exodus. “Bigger classes moved through and smaller classes replaced it,” he explained.
HUMBOLDT USD 258 also saw a drop in enrollment this year, with K–12 numbers currently sitting at 650 students.
“Overall, we are down about 10 students from last year, not including our virtual student count,” Superintendent Amber Wheeler said.
“The numbers we were down are primarily from families that moved out of the area. We did have grade levels that were up significantly from expectations, especially kindergarten, PreK, and 6th grades.”
While this year’s decrease follows a brief bump last year, Humboldt’s enrollment has fluctuated over the past several years.
The district counted 563 students in 2020–21, then saw a jump in growth to 663 the following year.
Enrollment dipped slightly to 638 in 2022–23 and to 610 in 2023–24, before rebounding to 660 in 2024–25.
This year’s count of 650 marks another small downturn in that up-and-down pattern.
The recent slide contrasts with the district’s broader goal of drawing new families to the community in part through the Humboldt Promise, a program launched this spring that covers college tuition expenses for all Humboldt graduates.
Besides giving graduates the chance at a higher education, the district hopes the program, funded by the Works Family Foundation, will make the community more attractive to young families and boost long-term enrollment.
