Read the School District Enrollment Study

The Salem School District commissioned an enrollment study this year, which was completed and presented to the Salem School Board recently.

SAU 57 has posted the full 44-page report on their website. You can access the report here or in the PDF to the right.

The report was prepared by the New Hampshire School Administrators Association and their co-investigators, Dr. Mark V. Joyce and Keith R. Burke.

The district is expected to utilize the enrollment study as it determines the best future course of action for school renovations.

Three elementary schools (Barron, Lancaster and North Salem) were renovated in 2011 and voters were asked to approve renovations to the three remaining elementary schools (Fisk, Haigh and Soule) this past March.

The $22 million bond did not receive the needed 60 percent to pass.

Renovations are also expected to be needed in the coming years for Salem High School and Woodbury Middle School, the latter of which is the oldest of all the school buildings in Salem.

The School Board's discussion about what renovation plan will go to the ballot in March is ongoing. 

The summary of the enrollment report states Salem's K-12 population has gone down by 14 percent since 2004, Salem's town building permits "have remained consistently low" and the town's population and number of births have also gone down.