Wright City East and West Elementary schools could see an increase of kindergarten students in the near future. The most recent census figures revealed earlier this year showed staggering numbers for Wright City, said Superintendent Dr. Chris Gaines. “From 2000 to 2010, our in-district population has grown 40 percent,” he said. “Warren County R-III School District has grown 33 percent. Our big question is how many kindergartners are we going to have?” Both percentage increases are significantly larger when compared to other districts. “There are just about 800 kids in the district who are under 5 years old,” said Gaines. “It would affect East Elementary first and West Elementary second. Our best-case scenario is to build onto the East first and then West. We would have to do something.” Gaines did say, however, that through a Web site, he would be able to track live birthrate statistics. “Hopefully, we’ll get a better indicator of where we have each age range,” he said. According to the district’s enrollment history, from 2003 to 2010 kindergarten classes have seen approximately 110 students. In 2011, approximately 130 students enrolled. Numbers look to increase in 2012 as well. Gaines said continued spikes in enrollment numbers would spell trouble. “If we make some assumptions and have kids coming in waves of 150, we could short-order 300 students to East Elementary and 600 students to West Elementary, which neither building could hold,” he said. Wright City East Elementary typically holds 230 kindergarten and first-grade students, while Wright City West Elementary typically holds 460 students from second to fifth grade. Despite suggestions from area residents, Gaines said transforming East Elementary into a middle school would not be possible because of a lack of growth on that side of the district. “There’s no development on the east side,” he said. “Until we see growth, it’s hard to say what we’ll do. People are building on the west side of the district because that’s where the infrastructure is. There’s absolutely nothing around East Elementary. “We’ll continue to monitor the population on the east side so we can draw a reasonable attendance boundary,” he added. Although Gaines anticipates larger enrollment numbers in 2012, he said the district would delay hiring a teacher until it knows it is absolutely necessary. “This year, we made a decision about 10 days before school started that we were going to have to add a kindergarten teacher,” he said. “We’ll use that same methodology for next year. “We would add a kindergarten teacher if we’re at the 130 level in August,” Gaines added. “I don’t think it would be fair to hire someone now and promise them a job and then it turns out enrollment is lower and we don’t need them. We’d want to have a reasonable expectation for a job because our (enrollment) numbers fluctuate a lot.” If history is any indication as to how enrollment numbers might go, late July and early August would see large spikes. “We’ll start to see a lot of people enroll and peak right at the start of school,” Gaines said. “lt will dip from that peak during the last few weeks of August, increase slightly during Labor Day and then level off.” He said throughout the course of a school year it is typical for attendance to drop. “It’s not out of the question to lose 30 kids, but this year we lost about five,” Gaines said. “It’s an anomaly because historically, we have lost kids moving in and out of the district, but this year that’s not the case. We’re having more kids stay.” School officials have relied heavily upon projected enrollment numbers in the past. “Those projections are accurate for grades one through 12,” Gaines said. “Kindergarten is unknown.”