Judging by this year’s numbers, enrollment in the Wauneta-Palisade School District is stable, and even saw a slight uptick for this school year.
    “It’s about what we expected,” said School Superintendent Randy Geier. “It usually balances out.”
    This year’s enrollment is at 232, up by perhaps a half-dozen students over last year. That’s up from 218 two years ago, 213 three years ago and 215 the year before that. And it’s up considerably from 2014-2015, when enrollment was at 192.
    Of the total enrollment in the district this year, 118 are at Palisade and 114 are at Wauneta.
    Enrollment has been helped by the number of option students, kids that don’t live in the school district but come here through the state’s open enrollment system.
    “We’ve garnered a lot of option students,” Geier said. “People on the (school district) border think we have a pretty good school.” He did not have an exact number of option students.
    The district is not allowed to recruit students, and in any event “I’m not going to go beg kids to come to school here,” Geier said.

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