[kwflconch]

According to the Key West Citizen today, the enrollment in Monroe County has risen for the first time in 9 years by 129 to 8280 students. This is great news! The number is expected to keep rising. Three schools are seeing more students than projected, Poinciana Elementary School and Marathon and Coral Shores high schools. I wonder how this happened, with the high insurance and the high housing costs. Perhaps the property tax cut plan had something to do with.

[hiknapster]

Actually, the number stopped dropping, due to people not being able to sell their houses and moving away.

So far this year, 8,280 students have enrolled in Florida Keys schools — 129 more than last year. Three schools in particular are seeing more students than projected: Poinciana Elementary and Marathon and Coral Shores high schools.

Before now, enrollment had declined gradually every year since 1998, from 9,507 to 8,372 at the end of 2006. Schools Superintendent Randy Acevedo said the increase could signal a slowdown in the population exodus, now that the once-booming real estate market has stalled.

"The only thing I can relate it to is that property values in the previous three years were 29, 22 and 14 percent, now they're below 10 percent," Acevedo said. "Maybe that means houses haven't moved like they have in the past and families, instead of selling for a high price and leaving like they were before, are hanging on to see what they can get."