September is here, and with the arrival of the fall months comes the beginning of a new school year. Schools across the area have seen a decrease in enrollment numbers overall, but a few have seen slight increases.

Below is a breakdown of local schools.

Waterloo

Total enrollment for the 2014-15 school year at Waterloo Community Unit School District 5 is 2,678, which is down 22 students from last year’s 2,700.

Zahnow Elementary, which houses kindergarten and first grade, has 419 students, identical to last year’s number.

Second and third graders at Rogers Elementary have an enrollment of 394, which is a decrease of 15 students from last year’s enrollment of 379.

Gardner Elementary (fourth and fifth grades) has 382 students this year, which is an increase from last year’s 369, leaving a 13-student gap.

Waterloo Junior High School, which contains grades six through eight, has 621 students this year compared to 638 last year.

Waterloo High School has 862 students this year, a decrease from last year’s 895.

Columbia

Columbia Community Unit School District 4 reports a decrease in student numbers from 2,069 last year to 2,025 this year.

At Eagleview Elementary, there are 251 students in grades kindergarten and first, down 41 students from last year.

Parkview Elementary, which contains grades second through fourth, reports 451 students, down 33 from last year.

Columbia Middle School has 609 students in fifth through eighth grades, which is down 60 students from last year.

Columbia High School has 714 students this year, which is an increase of 24 students from last year’s 690.

Columbia’s pre-K program has 21 students this year.

Karen Anderson, Columbia school board president, reported enrollment numbers during the Aug. 21 meeting.

“Our kindergarten, first and second grade classes are much smaller, so that’s a bubble we’re going to have to work through over the next several years,” she said. “Overall, though, enrollment looks good.”

Valmeyer

Valmeyer’s district enrollment is down slightly this year, according to the school office.

Overall enrollment totals show 484 students this year, a decrease in 21 students from last year’s 505.

In kindergarten through eighth grade, there are 330 students enrolled this year. This number is considerably down from last year’s 363.

Last year, the high school had an enrollment of 142 students. For the 2014-15 school year, there are 154 students.

Gibault Catholic

Gibault has seen a slight decrease in students since last year’s enrollment number of 260. For the 2014-15 school year, the school has a total of 246 students.

Director of enrollment Pat Herzing said that total includes 50 freshmen, 72 sophomores, 64 juniors and 60 seniors.

Ss. Peter & Paul 

Enrollment at Ss. Peter & Paul Catholic Grade School in Waterloo has also seen a slight decrease in enrollment this school year.

The grade school had 310 students last year enrolled in pre-kindergarten through eighth grade last year and has 306 this year.

Fourty-four of those students are enrolled in the school’s pre-K program, leaving kindergarten through eighth grade enrollment at 262.

Immaculate Conception

Immaculate Conception Catholic Grade School in Columbia has seen an increase in enrollment for the 2014-15 school year.

Though the grade school saw a slight increase last year, enrollment has gone up more dramatic

cally from 272 students to 293 this year.

“We have 139 boys and 154 girls,” ICS secretary Beverly Epplin said. “This is preschool to grade eight.”

Dupo

Unlike other area public schools, Dupo Community Unit School District 196 has seen a slight increase of students enrolled this year compared to last year.

In kindergarten through 12th grade, last year’s enrollment was 1,096. This year’s enrollment as of Aug. 20 is 1,116.

In first through sixth grade, there are 638 students enrolled.

Dupo Junior High School has 161 students enrolled, a decrease from last year’s 178.

The high school has 317 students enrolled, which is a slight decrease from last year’s 320.

Dupo’s pre-K program always has 80 little ones enrolled.