A steady, seven-year decline in the number of students in Colorado Springs School District 11 came to a halt this fall when enrollment jumped by nearly 200 students.

It was a pleasant surprise for D-11 administrators, who were worried that the turmoil of numerous school closures and realignments last spring would hurt enrollment. But there was no mass exodus and, in fact, more students from surrounding districts chose D-11 schools, said Janet Vaupel, D-11 enrollment coordinator.

In the 2008-09 school year, 1,945 non-district students enrolled in D-11 compared to 2,064 this year. The largest number of out-of-district students come from Harrison School District 2, followed by Falcon School District 49, she said.

Vaupel said the district will examine if particular programs and schools are attracting out-of-district students as well as D-11 students who choose to attend a school outside their assigned boundary.

She said the number of D-11 students who attend other districts is not yet available.

As for where the students from the eight school buildings that closed enrolled this year, there’s no clear pattern, she said.

“They went all over the place,” she said. “We have 32 elementary schools and all of the middle schools with at least one student from a closed school.”

The district’s biggest miss on projected enrollment came at Hunt Elementary, which has about 100 fewer students enrolled than projected.

Vaupel said that when the district closed Adams Elementary School, officials assumed most of the students would attend Hunt. Instead, many enrolled in the nearby STAR Charter Academy, helping to boost that school’s enrollment by more than 100 students. STAR is chartered by D-11 so its enrollment is included in the district head count.

The district also gained preschoolers, with about 100 more than last year attending programs run or contracted by the district. But the number of kindergartners was relatively steady, so Vaupel was not ready to draw any conclusions about whether more young families were moving into the district.

There are 140 fewer students in the district’s five regular high schools. Palmer High School saw the only gain, a modest 24 additional students.

Superintendent Nicholas Gledich said he was pleased to see the increase, but added that the district must continue to strive to keep students living within the district’s boundaries attending district schools.

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Call the writer at 636-0251.

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