Newport's Schools Open to a Crowd—and a Growth Chart
With 211 pupils enrolled on the first day and 250 expected, Newport reads its own boom in the school register, five years after a single teacher taught about 30 children.
The Newport, Washington, schools opened Monday for the term of 1908-1909 with an enrollment of 211 pupils. The enrollment is distributed among the different grades as follows: High school, 20; eighth grade, 19; seventh grade, 14; sixth grade, 14; fifth grade, 25; fourth grade, 26; third grade, 19; second grade, 21; first grade, 47. It is anticipated that the enrollment will reach at least 250 before the close of the first term, and in that event the school house will be very much crowded to accommodate them.
Five years ago the Newport schools had only about 30 pupils, with but one teacher. Now there is a modern school house, with teachers and the superintendent. In addition there are 60 pupils enrolled at the Newport, Idaho, school house, the capacity of which has been doubled this summer by the erection of additions. Miss Nellie Miller and Miss Lee Smith are teachers at the Idaho school house.
There is no better way to judge of the growth of a town than by its increase of enrollment in the public schools. The ratio of school children to population is small in Newport, as it is in all new towns, and the growth in enrollment is an evidence of steady growth.
Miss Fulton, of Spokane, has been selected by the school board to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Miss Lora Lamb, and was here Monday to take up the work. She will teach the eighth grade and English in the high school. Miss Fulton is a graduate of Oberlin College, Ohio.
“There is no better way to judge of the growth of a town than by its increase of enrollment in the public schools.”
School enrollment figures were the era's growth dashboard, and Newport's 1908 numbers told a story of rapid in-migration and strained classrooms. Today, rural districts still read housing and job trends in their rosters—and still scramble when the register outruns the building.
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