Associated Press

The number of North Dakota school districts has dropped more than 10 percent in the past eight years, and the slide is expected to continue along with declining enrollment, a state school official says.

The state had 113,300 students in elementary and high schools in 1998-99. The total has dropped to 95,600 now, and is expected to drop below 90,000 by 2011 or 2012.

Tom Decker, the director of finance for the state Department of Public Instruction, said the number of school districts has declined from 221 in the 1998-99 school year to 195 now. The state will lose three more districts in July, when the Spiritwood, Wimbledon-Courtenay and North Central districts merge, as well as the Enderlin and Sheldon school districts.

"We are nowhere close to reaching our low point of districts," Decker said. "We still have a very large number of school districts that are very small. We expect the same drop in districts in the next eight years as we have in the past eight."

At the start of this school year, the state's eight largest districts had 48,900 students. The other 187 districts combined for 46,700. The eight largest districts had an enrollment decline of 8 percent during the last eight years, while the other 187 had an enrollment decline of 23 percent.

"We're expecting another 20 percent to 25 percent decline in enrollment over the next eight years of those smaller districts," Decker said. "The discrepancy is growing wider rapidly. The big districts are most stable and the smaller ones are in serious decline."

Decker said two counties are having informal talks about having the entire county form one district. He declined to name them, saying the talks have just started.