Across the community, school enrollments are down significantly in the last 10 years.

Some schools increased or held steady while others declined, but the overall picture of our community based on school enrollment data is of a community with a declining population.

The census data of overall population confirms the declining school enrollment.

The Natchez-Adams School District had among the largest enrollment declines over the last decade.

Interestingly, though, in spite of the declining number of students, the district is spending more money per student than it was a decade ago. That’s somewhat understandable with inflation and expanding programs.

But the troubling thing is how much of the per-student spending increase goes to what appears to be out-of-line administrative costs.

The amount of the per-student spending that goes to administrative costs nearly doubled in 10 years.

We urge the school board to publicly explain why the administrative costs are well above what they were 10 years ago, while the school district is serving approximately 75 percent of the number of students it was then.

Something is out of line, but either the school district or taxpayers will need to demand some answers.