NATCHEZ &045;&045; Area schools hope they are riding the last wave created by IP’s plunge two years ago.

Enrollment numbers are down at all but one school in the Miss-Lou, and principals can’t talk enrollment without talking International Paper.

&uot;I think this is the final ripple on the water, the domino effect of other businesses,&uot; Adams County Christian School Headmaster John Gray said. &uot;This year will be a concrete enrollment you can look forward to in all the schools from this day forward.&uot;

The first wave drastically lowered enrollments last year when families directly linked to the paper plant left town. This year, the families of subcontractors and businesses that supplemented IP are gone.

&uot;I keep thinking this will be the last year,&uot; Trinity Episcopal Day School Headmaster Delecia Carey said. &uot;They said the ripples would be wide, and they certainly have been.&uot;

As of Monday’s numbers, there are 413 fewer children enrolled in public, private and parochial schools in the Miss-Lou than there were last year.

The only school to see an increase in numbers is Holy Family Catholic School, which gained 61 students. The Holy Family growth is due largely to the addition of a 2-year-old program and a third-grade class, though the kindergarten and first-grade classes did grow significantly.

The Natchez-Adams School District is down 350 students from last year for a total enrollment of 4,200.

The decrease was not unexpected, Assistant Superintendent Larry Little said. The district has lost about 100 a year since the 1980s when a judge placed the schools under a desegregation court order, he said. The problem got worse when IP closed.

In 2002, enrollment was 4,702. During the 2003 school year, when IP announced its closure, the district lost 50. Over the summer 100 more were gone. Last year the number was 4,550.

The reorganization of the schools by grade level this year jumbled school-by-school comparisons to last year, but most of the schools are near predicted enrollments

Numbers have been less than expected at West Primary though. Pre-kindergarten at the school allows a set number of students, and is full, but kindergarten is not. The reorganization planned for 435 at West, but so far, there are only 393.

Frazier Primary has 704, McLaurin Elementary has 654, Morgantown Elementary has 678, Robert Lewis Middle has 664 and Natchez High has 1,107.

Though some Natchez administrators say they’ve lost some students to schools in Concordia Parish, the numbers there don’t show it.

Parish-wide enrollment as of Monday was 3,683, down 45 from last October’s count of 3,728. That number will fluctuate in the coming weeks though, school officials say, and does not include pre-kindergarten.

Ferriday Lower Elementary has 409 students; Ferriday Upper has 345; Ferriday Junior has 293 and the high school has 351.

Vidalia Lower has 446; Vidalia Upper has 393; Vidalia Junior has 421 and the high school has 401.

Monterey School, pre-K through 12, has 420 students. Ridgecrest Elementary, first- through eighth-grade, has 165.

At Cathedral High School the IP effect will be there from now on, Principal Pat Sanguinetti said.

The parochial school is down 26 students this year, for a total of 576. Pre-kindergarten through sixth-grade has 307 and the high school has 269. Fifty-six eighth-graders make up the schools largest class.

In 2002-2003 Cathedral had 673 students.

At ACCS, 508 at this time last year is down to 471 in grades three through 12 now. The 37 missing students were mainly from the elementary grades, Gray said.

&uot;We stayed real level in seven through 12,&uot; he said. &uot;Young parents have moved out of town. We’ve been going down each year, but I didn’t realize how much it had centered to the young parents until this year.&uot;

Down eight students from last year, 308 pre-k through 12th-graders at Trinity were planned for, Carey said.

&uot;I’m glad it’s not worse than that,&uot; she said. &uot;We budgeted for this.&uot;

Private Huntington School in Ferriday has 174 in pre-k through 12 so far this year. Last year they had 182, but Principal Ray King said students are still registering.

&uot;We kind of look for a few more to enroll this week,&uot; he said. &uot;We’ve had some every day since school started. For one reason or another things don’t work out at other schools they were planning to enroll in.&uot;

King said he didn’t expect the state ranking of &uot;academically unacceptable&uot; recently attached to three public Ferriday schools to affect his numbers at all.