ONE UP, ONE DOWN FOR LOCAL SCHOOL ENROLLMENT

    The two Marshall County schools went different ways when looking at their early enrollment numbers this fall. Langford Area is down some students compared to last year, while Britton-Hecla is slightly up.  
    The first day of classes was Aug. 19 for Britton-Hecla and Aug. 20 for Langford Area.
Langford Area School District reported an unofficial total of 227 students that includes K-12 in Langford and the Newport Colony school. Last year, the official count as listed on the state Department of Education’s website was 246 (258 with PreK) and 224 (247 with PreK)  the previous year. 
    As the 2025-26 school year begins, 214 students are attending school in Langford, with 95 in grades K-5, 45 in middle school (grades 6-8), and 74 in high school. These numbers across the board are fairly consistent compared to last year. LA Superintendent Shad Storley noted there are five or six new students in the district.  
    Storley noted a big factor for their district-wide enrollment drop is due to the Hutterite Colony, Newport, splitting. This resulted in the district losing 17 students. There are 27 K-8 students at the colony school this year. 
    Class sizes for in-town students this fall include 14 in kindergarten, 21 in first grade, 15 in second grade, nine in third grade, 18 in fourth grade, and 18 in fifth grade. In the middle school, there are 17 sixth graders, 15 seventh graders, and 13 eighth graders. The high school has 14 freshmen, 15 sophomores, 15 juniors, and 16 seniors. There are also 16 PreK students.
    Superintendent Shad Storley said, “The colony number is concerning, but otherwise we only have one class in single digits. Overall, the rest of our numbers are pretty solid.”
    Last spring, 10 seniors graduated from Langford Area. 
    Britton-Hecla is seeing a slight increase in student numbers this fall. Between the in-town school and two colony schools, Superintendent Steve Benson said preliminary figures show 477 students enrolled for the 2025-26 school year. That is up from 468 last year, though still below the 480 reported on the state’s website two years ago. 
    This fall, there are 176 students in the elementary school (K-5), 88 in middle school (6-8), and 134 in the high school. Enrollment at the colony schools includes 42 at Sunset and 37 at Westwood.
    Class sizes in town are: Kindergarten–37; first grade–19; second–27; third–28; fourth–29; fifth–36; sixth–25; seventh–24; eighth–39; ninth–35; 10th–34; 11th–33; and 12th–32.
    There were 26 graduating seniors at B-H last spring.
    Regarding the numbers, Superintendent Benson said, “I still expect to see some movement in our numbers in the next few weeks. We know of some students both coming in and going out, so the figures are still very preliminary.”
    Benson also said he is pleased that they are fully staffed. “Teachers are hard to come by these days.” He is grateful that his staff is flexible, especially as some class sections move from one to two and vice versa. 
    The official enrollment count date for the state is in late September.