The Wright City R-II School District has formed a study group to help provide district officials with options to alleviate a potential issue with student population. The decision was made during the Sept. 15 board meeting to form the study group, which is comprised of parents, teachers and staff. “This goes back to last school year with the census data and the live birth rate,” Superintendent Dr. Chris Gaines said. “We’ve got a bunch of little kids about to come to school, so if we have an (enrollment) increase, we’re going to have a wave through three buildings.” The wave of kindergarten students potentially coming into the district has officials discussing various methods of facility expansion. The 63390 ZIP code expands beyond the district and includes children from Marthasville and Foristell. School buildings potentially affected include Wright City East and West Elementary Schools and Wright City Middle School. East Elementary holds 230 students, while West Elementary holds 460 students. “We hope to learn what this diverse group of people think we should do to address the issue so we have a plan in place, and so it’s not all of the sudden, it’s all these kids and we’re going ‘what do we do?’ ” Gaines said. Discussion of overpopulation was first started during the April board meeting as Gaines said there are approximately 800 children in the school district, age 5 or younger. He said from 2000 to 2010, the in-district population grew 40 percent, which was significantly larger when compared to other area districts. According to the district’s enrollment history, from 2003 to 2010 kindergarten classes saw approximately 110 students enroll per year. In 2010-2011, approximately 130 kindergartners enrolled with numbers in 2012-2013 looking to increase, as well. “Our current goals are to monitor enrollment and implement our learning plan, so we can implement that as enrollment necessitates,” Gaines said. “This year, we thought we’d get 138 kindergartners, so we’ve got to make an estimate for next year and years beyond.” Revisions to the student enrollment prediction could be made following finalized enrollment statistics in late September or early October. And with enrollment predictions, Gaines said, the district has a large amount of issues to tackle. “How do we staff our buildings?” he said. “Do we look at East Elementary as a K-5 school instead of a K-1 school? I have a lot more questions than answers. We’ll have to explore the possibilities and figure out what’s the preference.” Gaines also said a demographer may be hired to assist the study group, which is scheduled to report its findings to the school board no later than June 30 next year.