The Waverly-Shell Rock school district has published its BEDS projection for the next decade. BEDS are the number of students from 9th to 11th grade and this number determines what class schools compete in for athletics.
The district will have a BEDS of of 539 for the coming school year. W-SR projects that they will peak at 586, or 195 per class, in the 2031-32 school year and then four years following that peak will have a BEDS of 368, or 122 per class, in 2035-36, the final year of the projection.
Many schools across the state are projecting this same trend with a declining birth rate and an increase in the number of choices parents have for their children with educational savings accounts.