The year 2030 not only brings a new decade, but a new freshman class to Summit. The thing that sets this class apart isn’t necessarily the year, but the size of the class. The Class of 2030 is the smallest class Summit has ever had, with only about 235 students registered for the 2026-2027 school year.
This has actually been the case since these students first began school. Class of 2026 principal Kelly Mignerone will be the principal for this upcoming class, and she discussed why this class in particular is small.
“There’s a five year trend of enrollment that we look at, and five years ago, [it was] a trend that [enrollment at] the elementary [school level] was lower. I think it just happens to be one of those data points that’s an outlier. It’s been a small class since they’ve been [in] elementary [school], so nothing really has changed as far as enrollment. Of course, we still have kids that go to private schools, or we get kids from private schools, but it’s consistently been a low number all through elementary and middle school,” Mignerone said.
This small class will bring little change to the classroom environment in the coming years, though Mignerone said that they won’t be seeking teachers to hire because of the smaller number of students.
“There may be some classes that feel smaller as they get older, but in general, it shouldn’t affect anything as far as numbers [in] classrooms. If [a teacher] is retiring, we’re not [filling] their position, [but] we’re not asking people to leave,” Mignerone said.
However, when it comes to the culture and athletics at Summit, there may be a few changes to programs.
“Sports [may be] in [different] class size[s], [like] 2A or 3A, in certain sports. When they’re juniors and seniors, we would have a lot more [parking] spots, maybe that are available to sophomores. That’s something that we’ll have to see as time goes through,” Mignerone said.
Recently, a new bill passed in Missouri establishing open school enrollment. This means that families, no matter their financial situation, have the opportunity to choose what school their children attend, even if it is out of the district they live in. However, families are only able to do this if their school district opts in. The new bill allows families to transfer from their area school if it was struggling, to one that would provide a better quality of education for their child. There are worries that open enrollment will negatively affect schools’ budgets, as it would not work well with the state’s education formula, which decides the amount of funding school districts receive based on local and federal funding amounts. With this in effect, the number of students leaving cannot be regulated by the district, though they are allowed to cap the number of students moving in at three percent of the previous year’s enrollment.
Mignerone said that with this open enrollment bill, she doesn’t expect a fall in numbers, and that enrollment shouldn’t fluctuate too much in the future.
“I don’t think our enrollment will go down any more than what [the Class of 2030] will bring. It’ll either just stay consistent, or if we do get students through open enrollment, it’ll go up,” Mignerone said.
